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Stable forests – those not already significantly disturbed nor facing predictable near-future risks of anthropogenic disturbance – may play a large role in the climate solution, due to their carbon...

Better land stewardship is needed to achieve the Paris Agreement's temperature goal, particularly in the tropics, where greenhouse gas emissions from the destruction of ecosystems are largest, and where the potential for additional land carbon storage is greatest. As countries enhance their nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to the Paris Agreement, confusion persists about the potential contribution of better land stewardship to meeting the Agreement's goal to hold global warming below 2°C. We assess cost-effective tropical country-level potential of natural climate solutions (NCS)—protection, improved management and restoration of ecosystems—to deliver climate mitigation linked with sustainable development goals (SDGs). We identify groups of countries with distinctive NCS portfolios, and we explore factors (governance, financial capacity) influencing the feasibility of unlocking national NCS potential. Cost-effective tropical NCS offers globally significant climate mitigation in the coming decades (6.56 Pg CO 2 e yr −1 at less than 100 US$ per Mg CO 2 e). In half of the tropical countries, cost-effective NCS could mitigate over half of national emissions. In more than a quarter of tropical countries, cost-effective NCS potential is greater than national emissions. We identify countries where, with international financing and political will, NCS can cost-effectively deliver the majority of enhanced NDCs while transforming national economies and contributing to SDGs. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Climate change and ecosystems: threats, opportunities and solutions’.

Atmospheric carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies may be critical to achieving deep decarbonization. Yet a lack of technical and commercial maturity of CDR technologies hinders potential deployment. Needs for commercialization span research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) activities, including development of new materials, reactors, and processes, and rigorous monitoring of a portfolio of demonstration projects. As a world leader in supporting science and engineering, the United States (US) can play an important role in reducing costs and clarifying the sustainable scale of CDR. To date, federal agencies have focused on voluntary or piecemeal CDR programs. Here, we present a synthesis of research and developement needs, relevant agency authority, barriers to coordination, and interventions to enhance RD&D across the federal government of the US. On the basis of agency authority and expertise, the Department of Energy, Department of Agriculture, Department of the Interior, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and National Science Foundation are most central to conducting research, funding projects, monitoring effects, and promulgating regulations. Key enablers for successful programs include embracing technological diversity and administrative efficiency, fostering agency buy-in, and achieving commercial deployment. Based on these criteria, the executive branch could effectively coordinate RD&D strategy through two complementary pathways: (1) renewing intra-agency commitment to CDR in five primary agencies, including both research and demonstration, and (2) coordinating research prioritization and outcomes across agencies, led by the Office of Science and Technology Policy and loosely based on the National Nanotechnology Initiative. Both pathways can be stimulated by executive order or Congressional mandate. Executive branch implementation can begin at any time; future Farm and Energy Bills provide legislative vehicles for enhancing programs.

The opportunity for private landowners to receive carbon credits from reforestation, or “carbon farming,” will change the relative value of land uses for landowners, potentially having an impact on land-use decisions. We constructed a spatial model to evaluate the potential scale and location of carbon farming in a New Zealand landscape, the size of resulting carbon stocks, and the economic trade-offs for landowners considering carbon farming. We modeled the carbon accumulation, economic value, and potential uptake of a carbon farming management system that utilized native forest regeneration on set-aside land. For the study area, the Gisborne District of New Zealand, we found that regrowth of native forest species on estimated Kyoto-eligible marginal pasture has the technical potential to store 104.2 Mt CO2-e over 70 years over 379,000 eligible hectares. We found 102,951 ha where the potential economic revenues from carbon in our most conservative scenario could generate NZ$912 million in excess of expected grazing revenues over 70 years of forest regeneration. Our results suggest that reforestation could out-compete grazing on at least 27% of eligible land in the Gisborne District. Sensitivity analysis shows that uncertainty about the scale of carbon sequestration can have a sizeable effect on the estimated profitability of carbon farming, but estimated land conversion is strongly affected by the choice of discount rates among landowners and the utilization of compatible incentives for other environmental services. Potential profits from carbon farming are strongly affected by the uncertainty of the future value of carbon credits.

Temperate and boreal forests in developed countries have historically played an important role in stabilizing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs), by removing, on average, nearly ...

SUMMARYWorking across knowledge-based research programmes, rather than institutional structures, should be central to interdisciplinary research. In this paper, a novel framework is proposed to facilitate interdisciplinary research, with the goals of promoting communication, understanding and collaborative work. Three core elements need to be addressed to improve interdisciplinary research: the types (forms and functions) of theories, the underlying philosophies of knowledge and the combination of research styles; these three elements combine to form the research programme. Case studies from sustainability science and environmental security illustrate the application of this research programme-based framework. This framework may be helpful in overcoming often oversimplified distinctions, such as qualitative/quantitative, deductive/inductive, normative/descriptive, subjective/objective and theory/practice. Applying this conceptual framework to interdisciplinary research should foster theoretical advances, more effective communication and better problem-solving in increasingly interdisciplinary environmental fields.

Forests perform a range of valuable environmental functions, such as sequestering carbon, controlling erosion, and sheltering a diversity of species. Traditional cultures such as the Māori in Aotearoa/New Zealand (NZ) have long seen forests as a source of livelihood. Recent policy innovations in response to environmental issues like climate change are creating markets for environmental services, leading to new opportunities to earn livelihoods from forests. We worked with indigenous Māori landowners in a rural area of NZ to implement a “carbon farming” project—a management system that encourages reforestation and generates marketable offsets for greenhouse gas emissions under the Kyoto Protocol. Our experience in establishing a carbon sequestration project sheds light on the factors affecting uptake and project success for other groups seeking to utilize these markets as a tool for sustainable development.