“Nature-Based Solutions” Greenwash Pollution
What is Nature-Based Solutions (NBS)? So-called Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) or natural climate solutions has brought ecosystems-related approaches into a carbon emission market regime pretending to use all of Nature – Circle of Life – as a
sponge for air pollution instead of cutting greenhouse gas emissions at source. NBS has become a global carbon offset scheme to supposedly store (sequester) emissions in forests, soils, grasslands, wetlands, mangroves, deserts, coasts, oceans, and agriculture, such as corn, rice and cover crops, and even urban-city tree pits– potentially all ecosystems under the sun NBS is a new name for REDD+ (see www.no-redd.com). But regardless of the rebranding, NBS is about carbon colonialism perpetuating disaster capitalism. NBS fuels climate chaos and threatens the future of humanity with more ferocious hurricanes, droughts, tornadoes and infernos.
What does a Polluting Industry, United Nations, World Business Council for Sustainable Development and the World Bank say NBS is?
Shell Oil, one of the biggest polluters in the world says, “Nature-based solutions, or natural climate solutions, are projects which protect, transform or restore land. In this way, nature absorbs more CO2 emissions from the atmosphere. Such activities can lead to the marketing, trading and sale of carbon credits. Each credit represents the avoidance or removal of greenhouse gases equivalent to 1 tonne of CO2.” Shell is greenwashing its pollution by investing $300 million in its version of NBS.
The United Nations says Nature-Based Solutions “can provide over one-third of the cost-effective climate mitigation needed between now and 2030.” The UN says NBS is its main “climate action.” UN says NBS will be key to achieving the Paris Agreement of 2015. However, the Paris Agreement does not reduce emissions at source and is nothing but a bundle of false solutions to climate change including NBS by other names such as REDD+. The Paris Agreement is nothing more than a crime against humanity and Mother Earth. The World Business Council for Sustainable Development claims that NBS could reduce emissions almost 40%. And the World Bank assures us that NBS is the cheapest fix for global warming.
Big environmental and conservation NGOs such as Environmental Defense Fund and The Nature Conservancy[i] support NBS.
Using NBS for emissions trading and offsets is the biggest scam of all time, resulting in human rights violations and global land grabs. Polluters want half the world’s land for NBS.