No Net-Zero without nature: Why nature is critical to achieve climate targets

This article was jointly authored by Sarah Colbert, Barnabas Harrison, Bex Paffard, Ben Mayer, Lucy Hamnett, Rebekah Middleton and Luis Casa?as.

Increasingly, businesses and individuals are being urged to consider their climate goals in connection to nature protection and restoration – but what part should nature play in corporate strategy and how does it inhibit progress to Net-Zero?

Nature and climate are deeply interconnected, and a holistic view is needed to address both crises in parallel. This article examines the critical role nature plays in combating climate change, the benefits of and barriers to adopting integrated approaches, and opportunities to align global efforts. Key insights include:

• The negative effects of climate change on nature are numerous, and when nature becomes degraded, so does its ability to provide the ecosystem services which businesses and broader society need
• Treating climate and biodiversity as intertwined is vital for achieving Net-Zero and delivering the systemic change that businesses need to ensure their future resilience
• Protecting and restoring ecosystems can reduce and compensate for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, protect communities, and deliver economic and social benefits
• Siloed approaches to managing climate change and nature within policies and corporate strategies miss critical interconnections between the two areas
• Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) and the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) are driving the integration of climate and nature

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Nature and climate are inextricably interconnected

?“We are facing a global crisis. We are totally dependent upon the natural world. It supplies us with every oxygen-laden breath we take and every mouthful of food we eat,” Sir David Attenborough, 2021.

‘Nature’ refers to the natural world, with an emphasis on the diversity and interaction of living organisms, including humans, among themselves and their environment. Nature is a vital source of ecosystem services, such as food provision, water regulation, pollination and disaster risk reduction. The World Economic Forum has reported that half of the world’s GDP is highly or moderately dependent on nature and its services.

Nature is best understood through its four realms: Freshwater, oceans, land, and the atmosphere. Businesses’ focus on climate change sits, traditionally, within the realm of the atmosphere, where factors such as temperature, precipitation, wind, and other aspects define weather over extended periods of time and impact the way businesses and their value chains can operate. ‘Climate change’ refers to the shifts in temperature and typical weather patterns, influenced by GHG emissions from businesses and other human activities.

Given these clear links, actions taken to address climate risks should also be part of the solution to addressing nature loss and degradation. In addition to this being better for the climate and for nature, it is a more cost-effective means of reducing business risks, and it can prevent unintended consequences materialising.

Increased use of biofuel creates both opportunities and risks - There is an oft-quoted example of how the expansion of biofuel crops can be a lower carbon substitute for fossil fuels, but can result in degradation of nature through deforestation, and / or establishment of monocultures or increased use of pesticides and inorganic fertilisers which can reduce biodiversity.

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An Environmental Domino Effect

A healthy natural environment can serve as a carbon sink, absorbing carbon from the atmosphere, and can act as a safeguard against the impacts of climate change such as flooding. Conversely, it can trigger reinforcing and detrimental feedback loops that intensify exponentially when nature becomes degraded.

The adverse effects of climate change on nature are extensive; ocean acidification and deoxygenation, changes in ecosystem structure, unprecedented levels of extinction, and phenological mismatches of interacting species, among many others. When nature suffers, so does its ability to provide ecosystem services. For example, a study conducted by scientists and researchers at the Institute on the Environment found that climate variability is estimated to reduce global crop yields by 32-39%, in-turn increasing procurement costs for many businesses.

Peatland degradation - Up to 10% of global carbon emissions can be attributed to the degradation of peatlands through fires, droughts and floods. As peatlands become degraded, they release carbon into the atmosphere, thereby further exacerbating climate change and increasing the likelihood of additional extreme weather events that cause even more degradation of the peatlands.

In these situations, tipping points are also a grave concern – where a positive feedback loop can push an existing, predictable, system into a different state. For example, scientists from Leeds University have warned that tipping points in permafrost peatlands are closer than we previously believed due to accelerated warming. A co-author in the study, Dr Paul Morris explained their research: “Huge stocks of peat carbon have been protected for millennia by frozen conditions but once those conditions become unsuitable all that stored carbon can be lost very quickly”.

Domino effects in Central Asia - These environmental domino effects can be seen in the case of the Aral Sea in Central Asia. The Aral Sea’s decline began in the 1960’s, ultimately drying up by the 2010s. While causing an obvious devastation to the marine life within the sea and impacting weather patterns in the area, subsequent effects were felt within the local community that was reliant on the sea for large-scale irrigation projects such as cotton production. In the wake of ecological collapse, the Uzbekistan government has had to allocate high levels of resource and finance to address these issues.

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Nature-Based Solutions: A Path Forward for climate & nature

Nature can often offer solutions to the challenges presented by environmental crises. When properly protected, natural ecosystems such as peatlands, forests and oceans can sequester vast amounts of carbon, amongst providing other benefits. For example, mangrove forests can provide coastal flood protection while supporting high levels of biodiversity, and restoring them has the potential to deliver 100 million new jobs and $4 trillion USD in economic benefits by 2030. Bronson Griscom, Vice President at Conservation International’s Natural Climate Solutions, and other climate researchers have identified that nature-based solutions could contribute up to 37% of the carbon sequestration needed to meet global climate goals by 2030.

The Office of National Statistics placed the total asset value of ecosystem services in the UK at around ￡1.8 trillion in 2022, highlighting the importance of investing in nature-based solutions.

Insurer restores temperate rainforests - In November of 2022, Aviva announced a ￡38 million donation aimed at restoring the UK’s lost temperate rainforests in partnership with The Wildlife Trust. Restored temperate rainforests will remove an estimated 800,000 tCO2e over the next 100 years, equivalent to one person taking over 740,000 transatlantic flights, and also deliver significant biodiversity benefits through habitation creation for a variety of plants and wildlife.

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Barriers to Progress: The Risks of Siloed Approaches

The risk of siloed approaches between climate and nature presents an ongoing challenge according to the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem’s (IPBES). Their Nexus Assessment report, released in December 2024, details the interconnection of biodiversity, water, food and health, and climate change, and also highlights that solutions to the challenges within these areas must consider both climate and nature, together.

On the global political stage, climate and nature issues are still often siloed, as exemplified by there still being three distinct international events for climate (COP29), biodiversity (COP16) and desertification (COP16).

Within the corporate reporting landscape, businesses have been developing and reporting on their climate strategies over the last decade with minimal focus on nature, but developments in recent years have put nature in the spotlight. This has been driven by the release of standardised frameworks and tools from organisations such as the Science-Based Targets Initiative and Network (SBTi and SBTN) and the Taskforces on Climate- and Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD and TNFD). It was heartening to see that in October 2024, the TNFD announced that there were more than 500 organisations committed to disclosing details regarding the value chains’ interactions with nature. This has combined with regulatory pressures such as the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), and market incentives such as the EU Innovation Fund.

Amongst these, it is – from our perspective – the CSRD regulations as well as the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) and the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) that will be the most pivotal in driving the integration of climate and nature:

• CSRD – requires large and listed companies to report on social and environmental risks and impacts which are material to them. The environmental portion of this covers both climate and nature, and includes emissions, climate-related risks, climate transition plans, as well as impacts and dependencies upon biodiversity and ecosystems across a business’ value chain
• SFDR – aims to enhance environmental transparency in the Financial Services sector. Financial institutions are required to disclose social and environmental risks and impacts, including reporting against Principal Adverse Impact (PAI) indicators, which include those applicable to investee companies such as ‘Carbon footprint’ and ‘Activities negatively affecting biodiversity-sensitive areas’
• EUDR – aims to limit Europe’s impact on global deforestation and forest degradation through conducting due diligence on value chains to ensure production of commodities does not breach environmental and social laws.

Despite these positive developments, more integration is required to navigate the twin climate and nature crisis.

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A Call for Unified Action

“Conserving nature and adapting to climate change are two sides of the same coin; ecosystem-based adaptation is a powerful strategy that recognises the interconnectedness of the nature and climate agendas,” Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme. There is urgent need for governments and businesses to address climate and biodiversity loss together – and ample opportunities to do so in the near future.

From our perspective, businesses must not wait for regulations to force their hand in adapting their sustainability strategies to better integrate nature, or to consider it at all.

At Accenture, we work with clients across all industries to support the development and operationalisation of integrated climate and nature strategies. These often follow the TNFD’s ‘LEAP’ approach and the SBTi and SBTN’s guidance. Furthermore, our leading clients are already improving their business resilience by exploring the climate – nature nexus through detailed scenario analysis and transition planning including quantitative modelling.

Our team helps clients undertake everything from materiality assessments to map risks and opportunities in the value chain, through to evaluating the change in the state of nature at and carbon intensity of specific locations in the supply chain, direct operations and downstream. Using the resulting insights develops unified strategies which are firmly grounded in creating value for the business.

If this article has sparked your interest in better integrating your nature and climate efforts, please do get in touch. We’d be delighted to work with you to make this happen!