{"title":"Natural climate solutions. The way forward","authors":"Caichun Yin , Paulo Pereira , Wenwu Zhao , Damia Barcelo","doi":"10.1016/j.geosus.2023.03.005","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Climate change is a global challenge that threatens global ecological security and sustainable development. Finding ways to mitigate their impacts is paramount through engineering carbon storage, low-carbon energy transition, or natural climate solutions (NCS). NCS involve a set of measures (e.g., afforestation, land restoration, biochar reuse or sustainable land use practices). Implementing NCS increases carbon sequestration and mitigates climate change at the lowest costs and greenest ways. In addition, NCS practices can improve multiple ecosystem services (ES) such as air quality, flood and erosion regulation, pest control, water purification, wild food biomass, recreation or landscape aesthetics. However, unsustainable implementation of NCS, such as over-afforestation of dense mono-forest, can lead to tradeoffs with water supply, wildfire risk, and decreased grasslands and croplands. Therefore, to optimise the NCS implementation, reducing the tradeoffs associated and transforming the “expand ecosystem area” to “improve ecosystem management efficiency” is vital. Although NCS can contribute significantly to mitigating climate change, systematic climate actions must be accompanied by a transformation in the global society and investment in new technologies. This will be key to addressing global challenges such as the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as SDG 13 (Climate Action), SDG 15 (Life on Land), SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 3 (Good Health and Wellbeing), SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), and SDG 14 (Life Bellow Water).</p></div>","PeriodicalId":52374,"journal":{"name":"Geography and Sustainability","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":8.0000,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Geography and Sustainability","FirstCategoryId":"93","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666683923000172","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"GEOGRAPHY, PHYSICAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
Climate change is a global challenge that threatens global ecological security and sustainable development. Finding ways to mitigate their impacts is paramount through engineering carbon storage, low-carbon energy transition, or natural climate solutions (NCS). NCS involve a set of measures (e.g., afforestation, land restoration, biochar reuse or sustainable land use practices). Implementing NCS increases carbon sequestration and mitigates climate change at the lowest costs and greenest ways. In addition, NCS practices can improve multiple ecosystem services (ES) such as air quality, flood and erosion regulation, pest control, water purification, wild food biomass, recreation or landscape aesthetics. However, unsustainable implementation of NCS, such as over-afforestation of dense mono-forest, can lead to tradeoffs with water supply, wildfire risk, and decreased grasslands and croplands. Therefore, to optimise the NCS implementation, reducing the tradeoffs associated and transforming the “expand ecosystem area” to “improve ecosystem management efficiency” is vital. Although NCS can contribute significantly to mitigating climate change, systematic climate actions must be accompanied by a transformation in the global society and investment in new technologies. This will be key to addressing global challenges such as the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as SDG 13 (Climate Action), SDG 15 (Life on Land), SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 3 (Good Health and Wellbeing), SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), and SDG 14 (Life Bellow Water).
期刊介绍:
Geography and Sustainability serves as a central hub for interdisciplinary research and education aimed at promoting sustainable development from an integrated geography perspective. By bridging natural and human sciences, the journal fosters broader analysis and innovative thinking on global and regional sustainability issues.
Geography and Sustainability welcomes original, high-quality research articles, review articles, short communications, technical comments, perspective articles and editorials on the following themes:
Geographical Processes: Interactions with and between water, soil, atmosphere and the biosphere and their spatio-temporal variations;
Human-Environmental Systems: Interactions between humans and the environment, resilience of socio-ecological systems and vulnerability;
Ecosystem Services and Human Wellbeing: Ecosystem structure, processes, services and their linkages with human wellbeing;
Sustainable Development: Theory, practice and critical challenges in sustainable development.