An exponential growth roadmap for natural climate solutions

Humanity is facing an unprecedented crisis, and the stakes couldn't be higher. The core goal of the Paris Agreement – to keep global temperature rise as close to 1.5°C as possible – is at risk, and only swift and decisive action can bring it to that close.

The carbon law tells us that limiting global warming to well below 2°C means halving global fossil emissions by 2030, then halving again by 2040 and halving again by 2050. This challenging but achievable trajectory can only be achieved through exponential growth in a wide range of climate solutions, as evidenced by the Exponential Roadmap initiative.

The global energy industry is shifting before our eyes. More than a decade of massive public and private investment and the resulting technological breakthroughs have created the conditions for even the International Energy Agency to adopt the vision of net zero by 2050.3 We have passed the tipping point of clean energy and accelerated the necessary global energy transition. The question is no longer whether it will happen or not, but how long it will take.

But even with the wildest successes of the energy transition, we will fail without nature. There is no viable pathway to 1.5°C or even 2°C without large-scale deployment of natural climate solutions – actions to increase carbon storage and/or avoid greenhouse gas emissions from forests, wetlands, grasslands and agricultural land. Compiled by Chen Jiaoyun

While the importance and urgency of these solutions are well recognized, progress has stalled due to the lack of a comprehensive and coordinated strategy to scale them up globally. This Climate Solutions for Nature Index roadmap describes how we can – and must – cut land emissions, promote natural carbon sinks, and accelerate the transition from concept to action to outcomes.

This journey will be challenging, but it is a huge opportunity to reimagine the relationship between industrialized societies and the natural world and achieve a sustainable and just future for all life on Earth. Here we go.