Seizing the Moment to Move on Climate Change
Like all of you, I’ve been constantly reflecting on this moment in history and the extraordinary confluence of forces and disruptions that have upended our society and democracy and challenging all that we do. All around us we see disruption, division, and moments of reckoning on everything from racial injustice to political polarization. But as we turn from the events of 2020 (and January 2021) to the year ahead, I am hopeful these times of turmoil will deliver us to times of progress — and through that progress, to healing.
In particular, I look to the next generation of leaders and our children to bring their own expectations and demands to the table. I remember like it was yesterday the last time I visited my oldest son’s college, where only two banners hung in the school auditorium. One was “We Are Still In” and the other contained three words: Black Lives Matter. It’s no accident that most every official in the new Administration talks about their work through the lens of climate and inequity, and is wholly focused on ways that each agency can make a difference on both fronts. In just two weeks, we have seen the US initiate a process to re-join the Paris Agreement, impose a moratorium on oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and across federal lands, undo rollbacks of vehicle emissions standards, and move toward conserving 30% of US land and waters by 2030, which will bring benefits for both people and the climate. The Administration also promises to institute a sweeping plan to deliver environmental justice to frontline communities, including increased attention and finance for climate change adaptation. And they are embedding climate concerns in decision-making across every federal agency.
Amidst this sea change in the US government’s priorities, we in the conservation movement should ask ourselves a few questions. How do we support an already bold Administration deliver against their ambitions? How can we best leverage our unique strengths and all of our programs to move the needle on climate change, and to do so in a way that pays particular attention to those communities most marginalized in traditional economic programs and initiatives?
At WWF, our work on climate change is broad and crosscutting. Here are the areas we see as our signature climate plays to meet this moment:
1. Nature-Based Solutions
Halting deforestation and increasing sustainable land use could deliver up to 30% of climate mitigation needed by 2050 and reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires across the world. Bottom line is we can’t solve climate change without dramatically reducing deforestation and finding new ways to grow food that don’t rely on land, energy, and water.
That’s where nature-based climate solutions come in. These approaches protect landscapes and seascapes vital for carbon storage while also helping the world’s most vulnerable communities adapt to climate change and build resilience to extreme weather events. This kind of landscape-level conservation was baked into WWF’s DNA at our inception. In recent decades we’ve found particular success working with partners to secure financing for protected areas (national parks, Indigenous lands, etc.). Securing a future for protected areas is crucial since they currently store 15% of terrestrial carbon, provide a home to wildlife and support the well-being of many of the world’s Indigenous communities.
Securing nature in these places means working with those Indigenous peoples and communities as well as local governments, civil society, foundations, companies, and other partners to ensure appropriate funding. After all, a park in name only won’t keep out illegal loggers or other threats to nature. That requires clear borders, community engagement, educational signage, park rangers, and more. Working with partners, WWF helped pioneer the “project finance for permanence” model, which leverages performance-based capital and secures matching government investments to fund and manage conservation areas in perpetuity. Over the last decade we’ve closed three of these deals in Brazil, Bhutan, and Peru — locking in protection for nearly 200 million acres of forests, rivers, wetlands, and other ecosystems. And we believe we can significantly scale up this work in the coming decade by joining forces with other NGOs and innovative partners.
Our focus on landscapes has also led us to mangroves. These wetland forests store three to four times more carbon per acre than tropical forests, and they provide essential protection to coastal communities against the ravages of tropical storms. But many are under threat, including from coastal development, agriculture, aquaculture, and climate change. The Global Mangrove Alliance, a partnership with Conservation International, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), The Nature Conservancy, Wetlands International, and others, is the backbone of our efforts, building on work WWF’s global network has been engaged in for decades. Together, we aim to expand the global extent of mangrove habitat 20% by the year 2030.
On both of these fronts, the recent portfolio of investments made by Jeff Bezos promise to help us accelerate ambition. The $100 million awarded to WWF by the Bezos Earth Fund will enable us to expand our work on protected areas in the Amazon, Africa, and Central America — providing lasting protection to 130 million acres of critical ecosystems, safeguarding 11.3 billion metric tons of carbon, and improving the welfare of 14.2 million people. The funding will also support the protection and restoration of nearly 2.5 million acres of mangroves in Colombia, Madagascar, Fiji, and Mexico, safeguarding 1.8 billion metric tons of carbon, and benefiting 300,000 people annually. The funds also give us a powerful point of leverage for securing an additional $850 million, meaning almost $1 billion will feed into nature-based, people-forward solutions like these.
The US government can help unlock even more progress in these areas by embracing nature-based solutions as a key contributor to climate outcomes. We’ll be engaging the new Administration to urge their participation in key international forums focused on that subject, such as the Nature Champions Summit in Canada. We’ll also advocate for a doubling of US investments in global conservation over the next four years, particularly in programs that help to conserve forests and other carbon-rich ecosystems. And we’ll be strongly supporting the Administration’s target of conserving 30% of US lands and waters by 2030, in partnership with Indigenous peoples and local communities, and encouraging US leadership to help achieve that same target on a global scale. In particular, we want to see the Biden Administration use the power of its example and renewed commitments to global conservation to rally other nations around ambitious outcomes at COP15 of the Convention on Biological Diversity later this year.
2. Food Systems
Earth’s population is projected to reach 10 billion by 2050. Feeding that growing population without expanding the footprint of agriculture and the associated carbon emissions will be among the great challenges of the coming decades. At WWF, we’re focused on scaling regenerative and resilient agricultural systems that work in balance with nature. In the Northern Great Plains we’re working with ranchers and Native Nations to sustainably manage grasslands — utilizing pasture-based grazing systems to keep grassland ecosystems economically viable and to improve soil health. This in turn facilitates carbon sequestration while still providing a quality source of protein for people. We’re also focusing on greatly reducing food loss and waste. With an estimated 30–40% of food lost or wasted across global supply chains, there’s an immense opportunity to feed more people more efficiently.
Outside of land-based agriculture, we’re investing in a moonshot initiative to create new markets for seaweed, which has the potential to revolutionize how we think of food security, ocean health, and climate mitigation. Our work looks to drive increased demand and develop markets for seaweed, especially for animal feed, proteins, and to replace fossil fuel based plastics and materials with more sustainably sourced options, resulting in significant emissions reductions. On this front we’re grateful again to be partnering with the Bezos Earth Fund, which is supporting our work on seaweed farming in the North Atlantic Rim and Eastern Pacific.
Under the Biden Administration, the US government is signaling an agricultural agenda that is linked to climate change, addresses weaknesses in the food systems exposed by COVID-19, and tackles systemic social justice and labor issues. WWF is committed to working with the Biden Administration to move toward a robust, regenerative, and resilient food system in the United States and abroad. We’ll be working with the new administration and Congress to halt conversion of native habitat — including in the Northern Great Plains — and deforestation in our food, fuel, and materials supply chains. We’ll also look to align policies and incentives in the United States to scale regenerative and resilient agricultural systems that meet nutrition, food security, agriculture and rural economy, climate, and conservation goals. Together we can mainstream nature and climate into global food security and resilience interventions, and adopt a One Health approach that better predicts and prevents pandemics by addressing the health interconnections between people, animals, and their shared environment.
3. Engaging the Private Sector
Any history of the climate movement will have to account, particularly in the last five years, for the extraordinary growth and power of what we call subnational actors in moving forward on climate change even when federal governments don’t act. They have provided a powerful push for governments to set the stage for scaling up solutions. It’s notable that the We Are Still In initiative, which WWF created with partners including Climate Nexus, Ceres, and Bloomberg Philanthropies, represents the commitments of two-thirds of the American economy and many of the world’s leading corporations.
Some of our most important climate work has involved partnering with companies to advance climate solutions at a scale that matters. That’s meant everything from standing up the Renewable Energy Buyers’ Alliance to help companies procure renewable energy, to co-founding the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) to make sure companies set targets that align with the Paris Agreement. We were proud to see last month that an analysis by SBTi found that 338 companies with approved science-based targets had reduced their emissions by 25% between 2015–2019. Also important: some companies that already have approved science-based targets also worked to create an ecosystem with their suppliers, establishing incentives and the on-ramps for scaling up not just their own commitments, but the commitments of their suppliers and partners as well. Whether it’s Walmart, or McDonald’s, or Mars or others, the ripple effects of their commitments and supply chain engagement on climate and nature are powerful.
These corporate actions — along with those made by states, cities, and other entities — helped to maintain US climate progress over the last four years. But even with new leadership in the White House, voluntary commitments by the private sector remain critical to US decarbonization. And companies can also use their influence to create the preconditions necessary to advance nationwide climate policy.
That’s why WWF joined with other NGOs last year to release the “AAA Responsible Policy Framework.” It asks companies to Advocate for policies consistent with achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, Align their trade associations’ advocacy with that goal, and Allocate advocacy spending to advance climate policies. And in December, WWF released a new report to help guide the next generation of corporate climate commitments — from strengthening disclosure and reporting, to driving down emissions across supply chains, to making a financial commitment in nature-based solutions and other steps required to move toward a net-zero future.
We see these efforts as critical in complementing the new Administration’s focus on the climate crisis. By delivering bigger climate results from the private sector, we unlock greater ambition at the national and international level. And by bringing the political and financial clout of companies to bear on federal policy discussions, we make it possible to implement bolder nationwide plans — through regulation, legislation, or both.
4. Supporting Domestic and International Frameworks
The global structure of the WWF network means we can play a unique role in global conservation forums. I’m always amazed at our power as a convener of diverse voices and viewpoints at key moments when the world needs to come together.
President Biden’s Day One action to re-join the Paris Agreement sends a powerful signal that the US is once again all in on climate. And the subsequent steps he has taken mark important progress to restoring US credibility on the world stage. Going forward, it matters that the US leads by example domestically in order to work with other countries to set the kind of aggressive global ambitions we all need. That means adopting policies that put us on a path to reduce emissions by 50% below 2005 levels by 2030, and get to net-zero no later than 2050. It also means contributing our fair share to international financial mechanisms like the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and Green Climate Fund (GCF).
In part due to the concerted advocacy of a number of environmental and conservation groups including WWF, the US Congress continued to provide strong funding to the GEF during these last four years, and we will push for an even more robust contribution by the US when it comes time for donor countries to make new GEF pledges over this coming year. However, the previous Congress and Administration declined to provide additional payments to the GCF, so we’ll be encouraging the Biden Administration to bring our country up to speed on that financial commitment.
We’ll also continue our work in building stepwise a bipartisan approach with Congress to put a price on carbon. As a founding NGO member of the Climate Leadership Council, we’ve been engaging with both sides of the aisle to find practical and powerful ways forward to effectively price carbon and unlock the market potential of the private sector in the US and beyond.
We view all of these steps with an eye trained squarely on COP 26 in Glasgow, Scotland later this year. That meeting will mark a critical opportunity to get global climate efforts back on track and align nationally determined contributions with what science tells us is needed.
Welcoming Marcene Mitchell
Against this wellspring of opportunity and progress, it’s fitting that WWF-US is welcoming new leadership to advance our climate work. Beginning February 1, Marcene Mitchell starts as the new Senior Vice President for Climate Change. Marcene joins WWF from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank. As Global Head of Climate Strategy and Business Development, IFC’s annual climate investments grew from 11% to over 30% of total IFC financing. Throughout her career, her focus has been on creating new markets for business to invest in low carbon technologies and infrastructure — including in resource efficiency for the built environment and new market transformation programs for developing countries. She has also been part of Green Bank initiatives to scale climate finance by leveraging public sector funds with private investment.
Marcene’s role will be crosscutting at WWF, because addressing the climate crisis cuts across all aspects of our work. She will help to advance our important climate agenda in the US and globally and build greater synergies across our climate change mitigation and resilience initiatives — with a particular focus on nature-based climate solutions. She will also guide a deeper focus on global infrastructure development, with an eye toward building partnerships between private investors, multilateral institutions, and national governments to ensure that meeting the development needs of the decade does not come at the expense of nature or the climate.
I also note the recent transition of Elan Strait, WWF’s director of US climate campaigns, who served as the driving force behind We Are Still In and much of our other climate work these last few years. Elan has now joined the staff of Presidential Special Envoy for Climate, former Secretary of State John Kerry. We look forward to working with Elan in his new role.
For WWF, we are heartened by the progress of recent months, and energized to work harder than ever to deliver against the ambitious targets that science and our children’s future demand.
