NEW YORK, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) -- Using nature-based solutions (NBS) in combating climate change could serve to address multiple issues related to adaptation and mitigation, especially in developing countries, a Chinese climate official said Tuesday night.
Xie Zhenhua, China's special representative for climate change affairs, made the remarks in Manhattan's Harvard Club at a reception held by the Society of Entrepreneurs and Ecology (SEE), a Chinese non-governmental organization (NGO) committed to environmental protection.
Xie stressed that climate change is not a threat that will happen in the future but a reality humanity is facing. He warned that the average temperature on Earth will increase by three degrees Celsius or more by the end of the century if no action is taken, leading to the extinction of over 40 percent of species existing today, citing an estimate by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
He said China has been actively promoting NBS, which brings benefits to bio-diversity conservation, marine conservation, and wetlands conservation. It also helps generate good-quality economic growth, brings new industries and new employment, as well as enhances the welfare and health of the public.
"According to our calculation, by using nature-based solutions, we can achieve 10-12 billion carbon dioxide emission reduction, and that accounts for one third of the total efforts we need," said Xie.
For developing countries, adaptation should be given the same level of attention as mitigation in addressing climate crisis, in which NBS could play a critical role.
"We (China) are developing the nature-based solutions together with New Zealand and other international organizations. By far we have more than 180 best practices and we have made a lot of efforts in adaptation," said Xie.
He also praised the SEE's efforts in tackling climate change in the past 15 years and encouraged the organization to work more on the subject of NBS in the future.
Founded in 2004, the SEE is the first environmental protection NGO mainly composed of entrepreneurs in China. It has conducted various successful projects in desertification prevention and control, green supply chain, ecological conservation, nature education and development of environmental NGOs.
