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August 16, 2019
Democratic presidential candidates are talking about climate change. Almost all the presidential hopefuls have climate change proposals prominently featured on their campaign websites, and some go further, integrating climate into other issue areas such as health, manufacturing, and trade.
While all climate change proposals focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions overall, not every candidate has proposed nature-based solutions—methods of addressing climate change that restore or emulate nature in order to increase resilience to climate impacts and sequester carbon.
Here’s what some of the candidates are saying about nature-based solutions:
On August 8, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker introduced the Climate Steward Act of 2019, an ambitious plan centered on nature-based solutions. Booker’s plan aims to plant more than 15 billion trees and restore more than two million acres of coastal wetlands. Booker’s Senate office explains, “Federal greenhouse gas inventories show that currently our soils, forests, and wetlands sequester approximately 11 percent of all U.S. emissions, but the potential exists to substantially increase such sequestration by implementing the types of natural climate solutions included in this proposal.” While focused on climate mitigation, these actions will also provide the co-benefit of increasing resilience to climate impacts—for example, the legislation notes that trees planted in urban spaces “absorb harmful air pollutants and reduce temperatures in urban areas.”
Washington Governor Jay Inslee, whose entire campaign centers on climate change, discusses nature-based solutions in his Evergreen Economy Plan. In introducing his focus on green infrastructure, Inslee describes the role of barrier islands during Hurricane Sandy: “If not for this natural defense system, Americans up and down the East Coast would have been hit harder, with even less time to evacuate their homes and communities.” The plan highlights the dual purpose of nature-based solutions, explaining, “forests and wildlands, productive farmland, streams, wetlands, and estuaries, are our most efficient and cost-effective strategy to sequester carbon pollution from the atmosphere.” To leverage nature-based solutions, Inslee proposes increasing U.S. Forest Service funding and dealing with the backlog of maintenance on public lands. He would also increase funding to NOAA and EPA programs which are already implementing nature-based projects around the country. Finally, Inslee would empower the Department of Agriculture to work with farmers to develop farming practices that enhance ecosystem services (i.e., soil carbon sequestration, preservation of biodiversity…).
Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado and Montana Governor Steve Bullock also call out healthy soils as a carbon sequestration tool. In Bennet’s “America’s Climate Change Plan,” he says his administration would “assist farmers and ranchers to transition to voluntary carbon sequestration practices.” He also highlights the value of reforestation and wetland restoration. Bullock calls farmers and ranchers “the original conservationists,” and says he would “draw on their expertise to develop the next generation of biofuels, better leverage carbon-reducing cover crops to improve soil health, [and] restore forests and wetlands to build resilience to extreme weather.”
Tree planting is at the center of both former Vice President Joe Biden and former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke’s mentions of nature-based solutions. The second pillar of Biden’s climate plan, “Build a stronger more resilient nation,” states “natural solutions (such as tree planting on a large scale to combat urban heat and its associated negative health impacts)” is one of the proven ways to increase climate resilience. O’Rourke says he will be “leveraging natural climate solutions and supporting ecosystems and biodiversity conservation”— specifically by planting trees on marginal lands.
Both Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and NexGen America founder Tom Steyer refer to nature-based solutions in their discussions of public lands. Warren highlights that public lands should be leveraged as part of the climate solution. In his Climate Plan Framework, Steyer pledges to “strengthen our natural systems and increase access to outdoor recreation, so every American has a park or natural area within a half-mile of their home.” Neither candidate provides an expanded discussion of the specific benefits that result from maintaining and increasing natural spaces.
In an interview with Climate One, Julián Castro describes the Rebuild by Design program he oversaw in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy as U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the Obama Administration. In this conversation, Castro highlights the importance of increasing community resilience before a natural disaster strikes and defends the reconstruction of wetlands as a tool developers can use to make their properties more resilient to climate impacts.
In light of the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Special Report on Climate Change and Land, candidates’ focus on nature-based solutions give this suite of climate action tools much-needed national attention as cities, counties, and states draft and implement plans to address climate change.
Author: Anna McGinn
Top-Rated Climate Nonprofit – 4-Star Charity