Event Recording:

Nature-based solutions (NbS) can contribute to the fight against climate change up to the end of our century.

But the world must invest now in nature-based solutions that are ecologically sound, socially equitable, and designed to deliver multiple benefits to society over a century or more. Properly managed, the protection, restoration and sustainable management of our working lands could benefit many generations to come.

While solutions such as community-led restoration and protection of mangroves, kelp forests, wetlands, grasslands and forests, bringing trees into working lands and nature into cities can bring multiple benefits from storing carbon and protecting us from extreme events, to supporting biodiversity and providing jobs and livelihoods, how can we engage governments, businesses and local communities in these solutions to ensure their success?

The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review states that relative to other interventions, Nature-based solutions have the potential to be cost-effective and provide multiple benefits beyond climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction. So how can these economic evaluations for each solution be derived?

Join Professor Nathalie Seddon, Director of the Nature-based Solutions Initiative & Professor Cameron Hepburn, Director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, as they discuss the need for increased investment combined with rigorous evaluation of activities undertaken, using metrics which consider the complex, long-term benefits that NbS provide.

Read an article on Nathalie Seddon - From a forest track to the corridors of power: the wild lives of Nathalie Seddon

Professor Nathalie Seddon
Director, Nature-based Solutions Initiative

Nathalie Seddon is Professor of Biodiversity at the University of Oxford (Zoology) and Founding Director of the Nature-based Solutions Initiative (www.naturebasedsolutionsinitiative.org), an interdisciplinary programme of research, policy advice and education aimed at increasing understanding of the ecological and socio-economic effectiveness of nature-based solutions to global challenges.

After training as an evolutionary ecologist at Cambridge University, she developed broad research interests in understanding the origins and maintenance of biodiversity and its relationship with global change. She is a Senior Associate of the International Institute for Environment and Development and a Senior Fellow of the Oxford Martin School. Nathalie advises governments, UN agencies and businesses on Nature-based Solutions and is a Friend of CoP26, i.e. one of 28 global experts currently advising the UK government on CoP26.

Professor Cameron Hepburn
Director of the Economics of Sustainability Programme, INET Oxford

Cameron Hepburn is Professor of Environmental Economics, Lead Researcher on the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Plastic and the Oxford Martin Programme on the Post-Carbon Transition, and Director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment. He also serves as the Director of the Economics of Sustainability Programme, based at the Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School.

Cameron has published widely on energy, resources and environmental challenges across disciplines including engineering, biology, philosophy, economics, public policy and law, drawing on degrees in law and engineering (Melbourne University) and masters and doctorate in economics (Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar). He has co-founded three successful businesses and provides advice on energy and environmental policy to government ministers (e.g. China, India, UK and Australia) and international institutions (e.g. OECD, UN).

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