Nature-based solutions for climate mitigation and adaptation are critical to achieving the Paris Agreement goals. Protecting, sustainably managing and restoring forests and natural ecosystems can provide at least 30 percent of the mitigation needed to limit average global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). Healthy ecosystems are essential for a stable climate, biodiversity, sustainable livelihoods and human health.
Under the Paris Agreement, national plans for climate action – called Nationally Determined Contributions or NDCs – are to be set every five years with targets for the next 10 years. In 2025, countries must submit new NDCs with 2035 targets. This process includes assessing 2030 NDC targets and identifying targets for climate action through 2035, while also remaining focused on ongoing NDC implementation.
To harness the potential of nature in addressing climate change, NDCs must include strong, actionable commitments to nature-based climate solutions. While countries have increasingly included mitigation and adaptation measures related to land-use, forests, and oceans in their NDCs, there are still significant gaps in ambition and overall commitments to protect these ecosystems. For example, only 56% of global forest area and 13% of wetland area are covered by NDC mitigation targets. Additionally, many targets are not specific or measurable, making them difficult to monitor, fund and implement in practice.
Conservation International is active at both the international and national scales to shape the way that nature is included in NDCs through engagement at UN climate conferences and with national governments, partners, and stakeholder to inform NDC policy development and national implementation planning.
As countries revise their NDCs for the 2025 cycle, Conservation International collaborated with the Nature4Climate coalition to publish the second edition of the Guide for Including Nature in NDCs. This updated guide provides resources to help countries incorporate nature-based solutions effectively.
What are NDCs?
Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) are the main vehicle created under the Paris Agreement for countries to define national goals, policies and finance strategies to contribute to global climate efforts, regularly updated over five-year intervals. NDCs primarily cover national mitigation targets, but many countries chose to include adaptation, resilience and financial priorities, and to use their NDCs to define their climate change policy commitments more broadly.
Countries submitted Intended NDCs (INDCs) in 2015. The second round of NDCs followed in 2020. Now, as countries prepare for the third NDC cycle in 2025, they are expected to further strengthen their commitments, focusing on mitigation targets, adaptation strategies, and resilience measures, while integrating broader climate policies and priorities.
What are nature-based solutions?
The United Nations Environment Assembly defines NbS as: Actions to protect, conserve, restore, sustainably use and manage natural or modified terrestrial, freshwater, coastal and marine ecosystems, which address social, economic and environmental challenges effectively and adaptively, while simultaneously providing human wellbeing, ecosystem services and resilience and biodiversity benefits.
Nature-based solutions encompass a range of interventions, such as protecting natural terrestrial and ocean-based carbon sinks from loss and degradation, restoring deforested and degraded areas, and managing working landscapes and seascapes more sustainably, including activities that reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+), conserve and restore marine ecosystems, and enhance “blue” carbon stocks along coastlines. These actions help conserve biodiversity and strengthen the ability of ecosystems and communities to adapt to climate impacts. They also contribute to efforts to avert, minimize, and address loss and damage, and provide socio-economic benefits – potentially generating an estimated 20 million new jobs.
A Guide for Including Nature in Nationally Determined Contributions
SECOND EDITION
The third five-year cycle of NDCs, due in 2025, presents a crucial opportunity to scale up global emissions reductions and strengthen the resilience of communities and ecosystems by integrating nature-based solutions more prominently into NDCs and ensuring that social and environmental integrity is a core element across all targets. To support countries in this effort, the updated Nature4Climate Coalition’s Guide for Including Nature in NDCs provides practical recommendations and resources for policymakers and technical experts.
This second edition highlights how nature-based solutions can strengthen climate goals and resilience and enhance synergies with biodiversity goals. The guide features 15 actionable recommendations, along with case studies and tools, to help countries effectively incorporate nature into their NDCs.
Blue carbon ecosystems
Blue carbon refers to the carbon stored in coastal ecosystems, specifically seagrass, salt marshes and mangroves. These coastal ecosystems are carbon powerhouses, absorbing and storing carbon for hundreds to thousands of years and serving as an essential tool in combating climate change. Protection and conservation of blue carbon ecosystems is not only essential for climate mitigation, but adaptation as well. These ecosystems bolster coastal resilience by reducing flooding, erosion, and storm impacts, protecting biodiversity, and supporting coastal livelihoods. For more information, please visit the International Blue Carbon Institute.
Guidelines on Enhanced Action: How countries can include blue carbon in their Nationally Determined Contributions
A total of 151 countries around the world contain at least one coastal blue carbon ecosystem, and 71 countries contain all three. These countries can recognize the role of blue carbon ecosystems in fulfilling both mitigation and adaptation targets of their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the Paris Agreement. The Blue Carbon and NDC Guidelines: Edition 2 provides technical guidance for policymakers on the multiple avenues in which blue carbon ecosystems can be included within updated NDCs, beginning with a readiness assessment and decision tree, to account for the varying starting points, motivations, data, and capacity levels among countries.
