Missed our research deep dive on natural climate solutions?

November 21, 2024

The Smart Prosperity Institute recently launched a landmark joint report with Nature United titled Unlocking the Economic Power of Natural Climate Solutions. The report highlights why investing in nature is essential to conserving Canada’s natural environment and a powerful force to strengthen our economy.

Last month, we held a research deep dive webinar where the report’s lead author, Michael Twigg, reviewed key findings. He was then joined on a panel by Martha Rogers, Senior Economist at The Nature Conservancy, and Ronnie Drever, Senior Conservation Scientist at Nature United to dig into the report and its implications. If you weren’t able to join us, here’s what you missed.

A quick report recap

Michael kicked off the webinar by presenting a short summary of the report’s research findings, followed by steps to scaling investment in natural climate solutions (NCS) across Canada. He also highlighted the report’s key messages, including:

Natural climate solutions make economic sense: These solutions aren’t just an opportunity to reduce emissions and increase biodiversity, they can also maintain economic growth while increasing community resilience.
Natural climate solutions implementation is not political: They have broad support in Canada regardless of political affiliation and socio-economic context. Polling by Nature United shows that more than 80% of Canadians support more investment in NCS.
Indigenous leadership is a game-changer: Indigenous-led NCS projects provide sustainable growth and promote reconciliation.
There are a lot of investment opportunities: There is high visibility and momentum, but without more support these issues might be a flash in the pan.

An insightful panel discussion

The report summary was followed by a dynamic discussion moderated by Tej Heer, Senior Research Associate at SPI. The panel was asked three questions to kick off the discussion, highlighting what next steps are needed to unlock NCS investments in Canada.

What do we mean when we say that our current accounting systems and valuation approaches undervalue nature? What steps need to be taken to better value nature?
How can we start getting better NCS data? What steps need to be taken and who needs to be involved in these efforts?
What types of policies and programs are needed to better compensate landowners for NCS projects and what types of support are most important in getting landowners to implement NCS?

Here’s what our panelists had to say:

Martha Rogers on how nature is often being undervalued: often, we are not valuing nature at all and when we are, we are not attaching the full value to nature-based activities. This makes it difficult to make decisions because they are based on incomplete information. She noted that the report looked at how to improve data that we need to assess the uses and ecosystem benefits to fully value NCS.
Ronnie Drever on how we can overcome key data gaps: challenges are landscape- and sector-specific, but the emerging field of NCS needs better data on impact, as opposed to the current focus on potential. He also noted that the key is that the data collected should exist, as much as possible, in the public space and that it is an “all-hands-on-deck” scenario where all sectors can contribute and benefit.
Michael Twigg on how we can ensure landowners are adequately compensated: Michael stressed the need for trust-based policies that help de-risk the transition, including building trust in regulatory markets and with the public that investments are being accounted for and can produce results.

Ronnie added an example of de-risking in the context of agriculture by working with producers. He noted that if you can guarantee a price for an implementation in the event of a yield reduction, it can help build trust that is so important.

All panelists were then asked about how we can help build support for more Indigenous-led projects: All three panelists had suggestions on how to support Indigenous-led projects:

Michael reiterated the importance of building trust, communication, transparency and accountability, and that researchers need to listen and learn from communities they work with.
Ronnie highlighted the importance of free prior and informed consent, ensuring benefit sharing with Indigenous communities, and incorporating the depth of Indigenous knowledge in project design and implementation.
Martha highlighted the need to take time to understand and incorporate what is important to Indigenous communities and to pair the story, words and lived experiences of Indigenous people alongside quantitative data.

Question & Answer

The panel took questions from the audience, consisting of close to 45 people. There was a depth and diversity of questions submitted by the audience during and in advance of the presentation. Highlights included questions on:

The role of the private sector in investing and stimulating NCS investments:

Martha pointed towards the private sector as a potential source of funding, suggesting that the sector can get educated on NCS options that fit its business model. She noted that it will be industry specific, for example the agriculture industry vs. insurance industry will need to have different conversations.
Michael highlighted the rise of voluntary commitments and how the private sector can drive demand for NCS, which could lead to innovation.

Why forests in B.C. were chosen as an NCS hotspot:

Michael pointed towards the location of remaining intact old-growth forests, as well as inclusion of avoided forest conversion in the B.C. offset protocol and the ongoing threat of wildfires in the province. Additionally, B.C. is an early adopter for UNDRIP, has made progress on FPIC and has implemented the collaborative tripartite agreement.
Ronnie also highlighted the biodiversity in B.C., along with noting that the Southern Ontario hotspot would also have temperate forests, with less forest fire risk.

Farming and landowner decision-making:

Michael suggested that as there is little space or flexibility on farm-level productivity, what needs to be highlighted is assurance that cost overruns will not fall on landowners if there is a fall in productivity associated with transitioning to NCS.
Ronnie added that we need to recognize that farmers and producers care about the land and are responsive to peer-to-peer learning, so highlighting stewardship and supporting demonstration exercises could help engage landowners.

Finally, the panel signed off by sharing what they were most excited about the next steps of the research:

Ronnie was excited to see these ideas land in different places and contexts, seeing NCS implementation as a co-creating voyage with interested people.
Martha was excited by how innovative this project felt, with Canada digging in and trying to implement NCS.
Michael was excited by the potential of NCS, especially with the Canadian advantage. Nature is high on the priority list and will not compromise jobs or the economy.

So what’s next for our work on increasing investment in natural climate solutions?

The release of the report is only the beginning of ongoing work led by SPI and Nature United around these solutions. Immediate next steps identified in the report include:

1) Diversify funding and investment opportunities, where possible, to build increasingly complex and sophisticated nature-based economies

2) Map funding flows to better understand where there are immediate opportunities to leverage additional investment to maximize NCS impacts

3) Accelerate efforts and investment around NCS hotspots identified: B.C, Prairies, Southern Ontario and Indigenous-led NCS projects.

As SPI and Nature United continue to build a coalition, refine hotspots and develop practical roadmaps, interested participants and organizations will have several opportunities to participate in this broader initiative to unlock the economic potential of NCS. Stay tuned for next steps by signing up for SPI’s newsletter.