11 December 2019 – Nature based solutions were at the top of the agenda at a dinner for leading NGOs, experts and policy makers attending COP25 in Madrid.
The dinner was hosted by by Lord Barker, executive chairman of En+ Group, the world’s largest producer of low carbon aluminium and private sector hydropower yesterday.
Natural climate solutions can deliver 30% of the emissions reductions to meet the Paris Agreement targets needed by 2030. The EN+ Group has committed to lead the aluminium industry – identified by the UN as ‘hard to abate’- into the low-carbon economy and to the 1.5 degree pathway as part of the United Nations Global Compact.
“Natural solutions are scalable, inexpensive and ready to roll out. We need to focus first on protecting intact forests and then on restoration and afforestation” says Lord Barker.
En+ has planted over 1 million trees in the Irkutsk region of Siberia and has just announced another 1 million will be planted this year. Russia, where En+ operations are based, is home to 19% of the world’s forest reserves by surface area. Globally, boreal forests sequester more than 1.5 billion tonnes of CO2 per year and Russian forests account for an estimated 1/3 of that. Nature based solutions like protecting, sustainably managing, and restoring degraded areas of boreal forest can improve carbon sequestration and storage potential. En+ is also a founding member of the Climate Partnership of Russia which brings together Russian companies leading efforts against climate change in the region.
