Reducing the Earth's rising carbon outputs is essential to ensure a safe and healthy future for our keiki and the world they will inhabit for generations to come. The CCL’s mission of reducing emissions through an economy-wide carbon tax is an important step towards achieving our goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050. However, achieving this goal requires a multi-pronged approach and one vital solution is Land-Based Climate Mitigation - a strategy that focuses on preservation and protection of existing ecosystems. 

Deforestation and loss of biodiversity are not only devastating to countless ecosystems, it is also responsible for releasing carbon and speeding up the effects of climate change. A recent CleanTechnica article explained the importance of this strategy. It featured recommendations published in Nature, including a 3-step Natural Climate Solutions Hierarchy for land-based climate mitigation. They suggest to decision makers in the public and private sectors that implementing this framework is one of the most critical actions we can take to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, sequester carbon and increase biodiversity.

This approach geared towards mitigating the negative effects of economic development projects includes:

1. Avoiding negative impacts on biodiversity.

2. Minimizing unavoidable impacts.

3. Remediating negative impacts by restoring the affected sites or species.

Increasing land management practices focused on mitigation, carbon sequestration, and protection of biodiversity is a crucial step forward in protecting our sacred earth. 

Our planetary crisis requires an all-hands-on-deck approach - we must reduce planet-warming emissions, draw down legacy emissions, and mitigate the inevitable consequences of climate change. Protecting and restoring our ecosystems is a strategy that accomplishes these.

For more info, check out this CleanTechnica article - New Study Shows Protecting Ecosystems Takes Priority Over Planting Trees For Carbon Storage.