Regeneration is the answer.
Our economies have been designed under the same extractive principles that have led growth for the past years, but in order to halt climate change and ensure this planet continues to be a place where life can thrive, we must make environmental regeneration our primary collective goal.
What is environmental regeneration?
Put simply, environmental regeneration groups all strategies for climate mitigation that focus not on reducing negative impacts, but on actively repairing and restoring nature to undo much of the damage done in the last centuries. Nature is inherently regenerative – think of how your skin heals when you have cut yourself – but in too many cases we have pushed ecosystems past the point where they can repair themselves. So now we need to help them do so.
These strategies are also called nature-based solutions to climate change. Nature-based solutions harness the power of nature to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and also help us adapt to the impacts of climate change. They are win-win solutions that involve protecting, restoring and sustainably managing ecosystems to address society's challenges and promote human well-being (WWF).
Environmental regeneration can be achieved through different strategies, the main ones being agricultural regeneration (or soil regeneration), reforestation, biodiversity restoration, rewilding and ocean restoration. Often these strategies overlap and work best when combined.
