Global temperatures will very likely exceed the target of a 1.5-degree increase agreed to under the Paris climate accord, and a three-degree rise is a more likely outcome, said Robert Nasi, Director General of the Center for International Forestry Research, at the GLF event hosted by the World Bank in Washington. That means the world needs to prepare now to begin adapting to a warmer planet by investing to restore degraded forests, agricultural land and other landscapes.
“We need to stop talking and thinking and acting like we are going to hit these targets. We will not,” Nasi told the audience of about 200 at the International Finance Corp. in Washington. “We must all begin the work of adapting to a much warmer and more uncertain global climate.”
Making fundamental changes to the way business operates provides the greatest opportunities for holding back the rise of the global temperatures, Nasi said. That includes far-reaching changes to energy use, soil and forest management and involving communities in decision making.
For private capital to be effective, fund managers and businesses need to better understand the opportunities for investing in landscape restoration, said Jennifer Pryce, president and chief executive officer of Calvert Impact Capital. Collaboration among investors and learning to deploy all kinds of capital are critical, she said.
“We need to collaborate effectively and learn how to put capital to work,” Pryce told participants in Washington. “The challenge is to really capitalize on the financial infrastructure.”
In addition, the scale of investment needs to be much larger and restoration projects must become an asset class, speakers said. Technology like digital currencies and innovative management will make an important contribution, but alone will not be enough.
“If we end up with a 4-degree world, we’re going to have a four-letter outcome,” said the World Agroforestry Center Director General Tony Simons. “It is important to get really serious about it now.”
By Marc Philips
