On Earth Day our CEO Alejandro Litovsky gave a keynote speech at The Exponential Climate Action Summit – Financing the Race to Zero, a global event organised by We Have No Time which was watched by over 5 million people around the world. He proposed a practical blueprint to bring the value of nature-based solutions to the worlds of finance, and unlock the potential of nature to fight climate change on a global, exponential scale.
The event, brought together innovative leaders to focus on exponential blueprints for climate action. These includes Borje Ekholm, CEO of Ericsson, Lord Nicholas Stern, Patricia Espinosa head of UNFCCC and Sean Kidney, CEO of Climate Bonds Initiative.
Speaking on the potential of nature-based solutions to become a tool in the ‘race to zero’, Alejandro highlighted the opportunities for natural ecosystems to provide 30% of the global emissions reductions required within the next 10 years. But time is running out, with deforestation rates in 2020 being higher than the previous year, largely driven by illegal deforestation. Forests are today still worth more cut down than left standing, he argued, and nature-based solutions need to provide forest nations with an economic opportunity for development.
In order to achieve this, and drawing upon Earth Security’s recent proposals to create a “municipal mangrove bond”, Alejandro emphasised the need to consider additional economic values of nature, beyond just carbon, to make the finance case work. In the case of mangroves, these include the physical protection of coasts against extreme weather events, saving an estimated USD 65 billion per year in losses from extreme weather events.
Earth Security is playing a leading role in identifying and developing innovative partnerships to link global finance to nature’s capital on a global scale. Get in touch to learn more about our work.
Watch Alejandro's keynote presentation below.