By Silvia Mantilla, World Federation for Animals

During its lifetime, one blue whale can store in its body and via whale falls as much carbon as 825 trees. By feasting on small fish and krill that eat phytoplankton, whales gain tons of carbon weight in their body. When whales die, that carbon is buried away for millennia in the deep sea.

Kelp forests with sea otters may be able to absorb 12 times more carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere compared to those without otters. This is because sea otters have quite the appetite for sea urchins, which, when given the chance, devour the kelp. Otters thereby help maintain balanced ecosystems, enabling healthy kelp forests to effectively sequester carbon.

In the Congo Basin, forest elephants have been shown to increase carbon sequestration by between 7% and 14%. Dubbed “environmental engineers,” elephants trample on young trees, providing a survival advantage to those they leave behind, giving them better access to light and water. These trees grow taller and larger and thus store more carbon later on.

These are just a few examples of the key alliances humans have with wild animals to mitigate climate change. They are also clear illustrations of how progress towards SDGs 14 and 15, life below water and on land, is very much linked to that towards SDG 13, climate action.

Protecting animals is imperative. Not only because they deserve to thrive, but also because their welfare is crucial to combat climate change and its impacts on humans. Big and small, on land and in the sea, wild animals are essential for ecosystems to sequester and store carbon effectively.

Natural carbon sequestration aided by wildlife is critical for climate change mitigation

To date, the conversation around climate change mitigation has largely focused on the need to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. And that is a critical need if we want to survive. However, the reduction of emission production is only one part of the mitigation puzzle. Another critical piece is the need to preserve and increase the Earth’s carbon sequestration capacity.

In fact, in June this year, a group of researchers estimated that we need to quadruple our carbon removal efforts to meet the climate goals. To keep the global temperature rise below 1.5ºC, the report concludes, CO2 removal would need to increase from the current approximately 2 billion metric tons annually to between 7-9 billion tons per year.

CO2 removal may include technological solutions, but one obvious, cost-effective option for governments is the protection of functional, and restoration of degraded, ecosystems, inclusive of the wildlife within them. What could that look like?

Here are three policy actions that would help countries better integrate biodiversity protection and restoration into the climate agenda, with animal welfare at its core:

Ecosystem protection to maintain nature’s carbon sequestration capacity: We need to both expand protected areas and enhance their management. Increasing the extent of protected terrestrial and marine areas that are or can be carbon sinks is critical to the effectiveness of climate strategies. Further, it is crucial to implement effective management practices in these areas, such as promoting sustainable ecotourism, while prohibiting activities that are detrimental to wildlife or that mobilize stored carbon, such as bottom trawling.

Ecosystem restoration to reestablish nature’s carbon sequestration capacity: Ecosystem restoration initiatives are essential for reestablishing nature’s carbon sequestration capacity. By revitalizing ecosystems through, for example, rewilding initiatives, ecosystems can regain their balance to capture and store carbon more effectively. For instance, a 2023 scientific paper showed that rewilding could capture an extra 6.4 billion tons of CO2 annually. That would be over 15% of current global annual emissions from revitalizing nine wildlife species alone, potentially filling the estimated CO2 removal gap referenced above. This approach not only restores natural processes but also creates habitats for diverse wildlife, further supporting biodiversity.

Wildlife protection to leverage animals’ contribution to the carbon cycle: This includes stronger anti-poaching and anti-trafficking measures as well as stricter wildlife trade regulations to ensure any legal trade, including fisheries, is based on up-to-date, sound scientific evidence and is ecologically sustainable and humane. Furthermore, with a changing climate augmenting the risk of zoonotic spillovers, there is an increasing need to revisit wildlife use and management activities. This includes eliminating or restricting commercial live animal trade and markets and adopting a One Health approach.

Reducing food systems’ pressure on biodiversity to achieve climate goals

The success of the policies above is in great part dependent on the transformation of food systems. A staggering 80% of the world’s agricultural land is dedicated to animal farming, including land for grazing and cultivating feed crops. Transforming food systems, including a shift to plant-rich diets, could free up billions of hectares for nature-positive land use in support of global biodiversity goals, such as protecting 30% of land and water by 2030. Furthermore, transitioning the remaining animal production to high animal welfare systems integrated within ecosystems, like agroecology, can work in harmony with animals and their place within natural processes, supporting ecosystem services such as pollination, temperature regulation, and carbon storage.

The NDCs: An opportunity

To reach net zero, we need all hands on deck, as well as paws, fins, and wings. Countries currently have an opportunity to strengthen their climate action as they update their nationally determined contributions (NDCs). This is a unique chance for countries to leverage animal welfare solutions for climate and biodiversity action by including these in their NDCs, which are critical foundations for sustainable development.

WFA, a global network of 60+ non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working across all geographic regions, is expected to launch a toolkit countries can use in their NDC updates. The toolkit will support countries in identifying nationally relevant policies that can strengthen their national carbon sequestration capacity and thereby increase their ability to meet net-zero goals.

This article builds on a previously published piece by the UN Environment Programme here.