Natural Climate Solutions (NCS)
Description
A subset of nature-based solutions, natural-climate solutions include conservation, restoration, and improved land and sea management that increase carbon storage and/or avoid greenhouse gas emissions, enhance resilience and assist climate adaptation across global forests, wetlands, mangroves, grasslands, and agricultural lands and other habitats 1.
Natural Climate Solutions and Nature-based Solutions
When NCS address additional societal challenges, they are sometimes considered as a subset of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) and may be referred to as ‘Nature-based Solutions for climate [mitigation]’ 3 4.
However, there is a nuanced difference between how NCS and NbS for climate mitigation are interpreted. According to the IUCN Global Standard, all NbS are required to have a net positive impact on biodiversity while also empowering all affected stakeholders 5. The minimum requirement for NCS on the other hand is to contribute to climate mitigation and to result in no net loss for biodiversity, according to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), although NCS that are net positive for biodiversity and supportive of local communities are encouraged 6.
Nature-based Solutions Coalition (2019) 3
Girardin et al. (2021) 4
IUCN World conservation Congress (2016) 5
WBCSD (2020) 6