Read the Video Transcript
The Bridge to a Better 2030
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Look at this—it’s the year 2030, and it’s a beautiful day. For the first time in our lives, climate mitigation is beginning to stabilize. And while we’re still feeling the effects of climate change, nature is helping us become more resilient: more trees are cooling our communities, and restored reefs and wetlands are protecting our coasts from rising seas and storms. Our lands, ocean, and fresh water—and the communities that depend on them—are returning to health. We just need to get there… somehow.
The gap in front of us is the widest we’ve ever faced. More than one million plant and animal species face extinction, and since 1970, climate emissions have increased by 90%—and they are still increasing. These interconnected crises are accelerating. Delay is not an option.
At The Nature Conservancy, we’re working with partners, communities, and decision makers across the globe to help bridge the gap during this defining decade—and the best way forward is together. So we’ve set the biggest, most ambitious goals in our history. These goals—and the pathways to achieve them—directly support the world’s most important environmental commitments, like the Paris Climate Agreement and the Global Biodiversity Framework. Grounded in science, these goals represent how The Nature Conservancy can contribute to what the world needs most during these critical years.
So—let’s explore our goals for 2030 and see how achieving them helps us build a bridge to a better future. We’ll reduce greenhouse gas emissions by three billion metric tons a year. That’s nearly 10% of the total reductions the world needs to avoid the worst effects of climate change. We’ll meet this target by unlocking the power of nature to absorb carbon, helping transform food systems, and supporting the world’s transition to clean energy.
To reverse the loss of nature, world leaders have agreed to protect 30% of land, ocean, and fresh water. We’ll help by conserving 650 million hectares of diverse habitats such as forests and grasslands. That’s an area twice the size of India. And that’s just on land—we’ll also conserve four billion hectares of ocean area—more than 10% of the entire ocean—by working with communities to create protected areas and thriving fisheries.
Back on shore, we’ll help 100 million people adapt and become more resilient to climate change by conserving and restoring habitats that protect communities from severe floods, wildfires, heat, and drought. We’ll also conserve one million kilometers of river systems—enough to stretch around the world 25 times—and 30 million hectares of lakes and wetlands. That’s like three Lake Superiors or 10 Lake Tanganyikas.
Finally, we will do this by supporting the leadership, authority, and knowledge of 45 million people whose well-being and livelihoods are directly tied to nature’s health—like farmers growing sustainable cacao trees in Brazil and Indigenous Peoples managing grasslands with traditional fire in Australia.
The beauty of these goals is how the pathways to achieve them intersect and work together to create results that will endure far beyond 2030. One example is the Emerald Edge, the world’s largest coastal temperate rainforest. Here, Indigenous Peoples are leading stewardship efforts, as they have for thousands of years. They’re creating new sustainable economies and revitalizing their cultures and languages—all built on a deep connection to the lands and waters.
Supporting Indigenous-led forest management in the Emerald Edge not only strengthens communities and conserves wildlife habitat; those forests also soak up climate emissions. But that’s not all—effective forest management helps conserve the rivers that flow through them, ensuring clean water for people and for important species like salmon. Those benefits flow all the way downstream to ocean habitats. Keeping these habitats healthy makes them—and the people living in harmony with them—more resilient to climate change, now and in the future.
We all want one future, where people and nature thrive. And it’s within our reach. It won’t be easy, but with your determination and support, we can be the bridge that takes us there. Together, we’ll find a way.