Innovative research by faculty at Pomona College, The Nature Conservancy (TNC), and other partners reveals how protecting, better managing and restoring nature for climate change can enhance human well-being, biodiversity and ecosystems.
Charlotte Chang, assistant professor of biology and environmental analysis, is the lead co-author of the new research, which shows that natural climate solution pathways with the highest potential to mitigate carbon also have the most evidence of their impacts on people and nature. Using advanced machine-learning methods and large language models, the researchers analyzed over 250,000 peer-reviewed publications to assess the benefits and trade-offs of natural climate solutions. The study was published on December 2 in the journal Nature Sustainability.
“We’ve achieved something unprecedented—the first comprehensive analysis of how natural climate solutions impact every dimension of human and environmental well-being,” says Chang, who is also the inaugural One Conservancy Science Fellow at TNC. “By using open-source large language models, we could evaluate vast amounts of data in ways that were previously impossible.”
This global evidence map will help countries implement natural climate solutions by showing the impacts that pathways like reforestation and wetland protection can have on human well-being, biodiversity and the environment beyond climate change mitigation.
“Natural climate solutions hold the promise of transforming ecosystems and livelihoods, but their implementation must be informed by evidence,” said J.T. Erbaugh, an Applied Social Scientist at TNC and co-lead author.
“Our evidence base can help ensure that these solutions provide benefits for people and ecosystems more equitably and effectively,” Brian Robinson, co-lead author and Associate Professor of Geography at McGill University, said. “The scale of our evidence base transforms how we understand environmental and climate solutions.”