--- title: what natural climate solutions actually are canonical_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/what-natural-climate-solutions-actually-are markdown_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/what-natural-climate-solutions-actually-are.md subtitle: "protect, restore, and manage the living systems that already move climate" category: natural-capital --- # what natural climate solutions actually are *protect, restore, and manage the living systems that already move climate* Natural climate solutions are the protect, restore, and manage pathways — forests, wetlands, peat, grasslands, coasts, and working lands — that already move climate. They are not a new substance and not a financial wrapper. They are actions taken in living systems that already store carbon, cycle water, shape fire, and cool places. :::johnson **natural climate solutions are the protect, restore, and manage pathways that already move climate.** the tonne of carbon is real. it is not the whole climate. [the pathways →](/guide/the-natural-climate-solutions-pathways) ::: When people search this term, they usually meet carbon-market language first. That is part of the story, but not the subject itself. A forest is not created by a methodology. A wetland is not defined by a registry. A grassland does not begin when a buyer appears. The living system exists whether or not anyone buys a certificate. Ensurance funds the pathway. It is not what a forest, a peatland, or a mangrove is. That distinction matters because price can help move care, protection, and restoration into budgets. But price is a bridge, never the worth. The modern term comes into focus in Griscom et al. The paper evaluates 20 conservation, restoration, and improved land management pathways across global forests, wetlands, grasslands, and agricultural lands. At a 2030 reference year, the paper finds a maximum potential of 23.8 PgCO2e per year, with a 95% confidence interval of 20.3–37.4, while constraining for food security, fiber security, and biodiversity conservation. That maximum is not constrained by cost. The same paper then asks a stricter question: what slice is cost-effective? Its answer is about half that maximum, 11.3 PgCO2e per year, if the social cost of CO2 is at least $100 per MgCO2e by 2030. In that framing, natural climate solutions can provide 37% of the cost-effective CO2 mitigation needed through 2030 for a greater than 66% chance of holding warming below 2°C. One-third of that cost-effective slice can be delivered at or below $10 per MgCO2. Those are climate numbers. They are useful. They are also partial. The abstract names co-benefits directly: water filtration, flood buffering, soil health, biodiversity habitat, and enhanced climate resilience. Those are not inside the tonne. They matter anyway, often first. New York City protects the Catskill and Delaware forests because the city drinks that unfiltered supply. Salesforce’s downtown San Francisco campus depends on Hetch Hetchy water from the Tuolumne, a forested Sierra supply. In both cases, the climate role is real. So is the water role. One accounting frame does not erase the other. If you want a simple rule, use this one: natural climate solutions are actions in living systems that lower atmospheric greenhouse-gas pressure by protecting existing carbon, restoring lost ecological function, or improving how working land is managed. The paper groups them under three verbs for a reason: protect, restore, manage. If you want the pathway list, go to [twenty pathways, three verbs](/guide/the-natural-climate-solutions-pathways). If you want the accounting boundary, go to [the tonne is real and partial](/guide/the-carbon-tonne-is-not-the-climate). ### what are natural climate solutions? They are a subset of climate mitigation actions rooted in land and water ecosystems. That means they are not every good thing nature does, and not every environmental project. They are the pathways where protecting, restoring, or improving stewardship changes greenhouse-gas outcomes in a measurable way. In Griscom et al., the named main-text pathways include Avoided Forest Conversion, Reforestation, Natural Forest Management, Improved Plantations, Avoided Woodfuel Harvest, Fire Management, Biochar, Conservation Agriculture, Cropland Nutrient Management, Trees in Croplands, Grazing—Optimal Intensity, Grazing—Legumes, Grazing—Improved Feed, Grazing—Animal Management, Coastal Wetland Restoration, and Avoided Coastal Wetland Impacts. The paper’s twenty are completed in the supplement. That list is broad enough to show the point. Natural climate solutions are not just tree planting. They include avoided loss, better management, and restoration across forests, wetlands, grasslands, coasts, and working lands. They also sit inside a wider story about how climate control works. Some mitigation comes from machines and industrial systems. Some comes from keeping living systems intact and functional. That is why [the cheapest climate control isn’t a machine](/guide/the-cheapest-climate-control-isnt-a-machine) is not a slogan so much as a framing correction. And it is why a [natural asset](/guide/what-a-natural-asset-actually-is) is not the same thing as a security, a registry entry, or a modeled stream of future payments. The asset is the living system and its function. Funding can support that function. It does not replace it. ### are natural climate solutions the same as nature-based solutions? No. Natural climate solutions are narrower. They are climate-mitigation pathways in living systems. Nature-based solutions are broader. They cover actions that work with nature to address social and environmental challenges, including heat, flooding, water security, erosion, adaptation, and public health, with or without a carbon-accounting frame. If that is the question you came in with, read [what nature-based solutions actually are](/guide/what-nature-based-solutions-actually-are). The overlap is real. Wetland restoration can reduce emissions, buffer floods, improve water quality, and support habitat at the same time. Forest protection can help climate, cooling, and watershed stability in one move. But the categories are not identical. A good way to think about it: - Nature-based solutions ask, “What problem are we solving with nature?” - Natural climate solutions ask, “Which land and water pathways materially mitigate climate?” That difference keeps the term useful. ### is a natural climate solution a carbon credit? No. A carbon credit can be one funding and accounting mechanism tied to a natural climate solution pathway. It is not the pathway itself. That matters because recent nature-investment writing often treats natural climate solutions largely as carbon-credit and reforestation deals. That is too narrow. It pulls attention toward what is easiest to package instead of what is ecologically present and climate-relevant. A coastal wetland still buffers floods and stores carbon if no one structures a transaction around it. A forest still cools, cycles water, and holds carbon if nobody issues paper against it. A grassland still matters if it never appears in an investor deck. The tonne is real, and serious work depends on measuring it carefully. But the tonne is not the whole climate. Here is the simplest contrast. | pathway | what the tonne counts | what it does not count | | --- | --- | --- | | protect | Avoided emissions and retained carbon from keeping living systems intact | Cooling effects, watershed function, and fire-pattern changes outside the carbon accounting boundary | | restore | Carbon gained or emissions reduced as ecological function returns | Flood buffering, water filtration, and habitat recovery not captured inside the tonne | | manage | Measured greenhouse-gas improvements from better land stewardship | Local cooling, drought buffering, and fire behavior shifts that matter but sit outside the carbon unit | This is also why careful climate writing should not collapse all outcomes into one number. The carbon unit is narrow by design. It needs to be. But decision-making should stay wider than the unit. For some readers, the practical question is where to start. Start with the living system. Ask what exists now, what pressures it faces, which protect, restore, or manage pathway applies, and what can be measured with honesty. Then ask what does not fit inside the tonne but still matters to the place: cooling, water, fire, biodiversity, resilience. That order helps avoid a common mistake: treating the finance layer as the thing itself. Ensurance is built around the opposite order. The natural system comes first. The pathway comes next. Funding helps that pathway stay in motion. If you want to explore where this shows up by system, start in [explore](/explore?from=guide) or go directly to [temperate forests](/temperate-forests.ensurance?from=guide), [inland wetlands](/inland-wetlands.ensurance?from=guide), [grasslands](/grasslands.ensurance?from=guide), [coastal systems](/coastal-systems.ensurance?from=guide), or [climate stability](/climate-stability.ensurance?from=guide). That is the core answer. Natural climate solutions are not a synonym for offsets, not a synonym for tree planting, and not a synonym for nature in general. They are the protect, restore, and manage pathways in living systems that already move climate. The carbon accounting is necessary. The living system is larger than the accounting. If you are deciding policy, capital allocation, or land stewardship, hold both truths at once. Measure the tonne carefully. Do not confuse the tonne with the whole work. For next steps, read the pathway map in [twenty pathways, three verbs](/guide/the-natural-climate-solutions-pathways), then the boundary piece in [the tonne is real and partial](/guide/the-carbon-tonne-is-not-the-climate). If you need help applying the frame, [contact us](/contact?from=guide&topic=natural-climate-solutions). ## sources - Griscom, B. W., et al. “Natural climate solutions.” PNAS (2017). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1710465114 - Ellison, D., et al. “Trees, forests and water: Cool insights for a hot world.” Global Environmental Change (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2017.01.002 ## the series - [what natural climate solutions actually are](/guide/what-natural-climate-solutions-actually-are) - [twenty pathways, three verbs](/guide/the-natural-climate-solutions-pathways) - [forests, peat, and mangroves are on the list](/guide/forests-peat-and-mangroves-are-on-the-list) - [the tonne is real and partial](/guide/the-carbon-tonne-is-not-the-climate) - [who pays for natural climate solutions](/guide/who-pays-for-natural-climate-solutions) - [how natural climate solutions get funded](/guide/how-natural-climate-solutions-get-funded)