Our Impact News & Insights Op-ed: Nature Needs Climate Investment to Survive
August 18, 2023

Op-ed: Nature Needs Climate Investment to Survive

Larry Selzer, President and CEO of The Conservation Fund, coauthored an op-ed with Bernard Rowe, Ioneer Managing Director and CEO, on how America can and must find mutually beneficial solutions to scale up both our nation’s clean energy capacity and our biodiversity and land protection efforts.

America is fighting two environmental battles at once — making the transition to clean energy and protecting biodiversity. They are being waged as a zero-sum game, putting both at risk. Instead of pitting clean energy and species conservation against each other, America needs collaborative solutions that champion “unlikely alliances” to balance both, according to The Conservation Fund President and CEO Larry Selzer and Ioneer Managing Director and CEO Bernard Rowe.

While it may seem unusual for the leaders of an environmental group and a mining company to team up, the urgency of this issue is one that requires new ways of working together and thinking about the critical issues at hand.  

“
Investing in a domestic supply chain, including wind and solar and hundreds of thousands of miles of new transmission capacity, will result in unavoidable impacts to the nation’s land and species. Recognizing this fact, and crafting mitigation plans that address these effects through additional land conservation and restoration while integrating climate resilience into our expanding network of protected lands, will allow us to advance both climate and biodiversity goals in a meaningful way.”
Larry Selzer and Bernard Rowe

In the piece below, authors detail how to fuel sustainable innovation, center the needs of nature, and educe greenhouse gas emissions while protecting land and ecosystems.

To Survive, Nature Needs Climate Investments

A co-authored op-ed in the DC Journal shares visions for a new chapter of sustainable innovation.

Read more

To learn more about our work to advance climate solutions and green energy work, visit our program page here.

Photo credits (from top of page): Meric Tuna/Unsplash

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