The expert panel will address opportunities and thorny issues in converting to action the “nature” recommendations of the Scientists’ Warning paper:  

• Habitat restoration, including coastlines – levering the 2021-2030 UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration as we plan for climate adaptation and a new economy;

• Habitat conservation, especially carbon-rich forests, savannas and grasslands, wetlands, peatlands – calling land transformation in virgin habitats to a halt well before 2030

• What this means for urban settlements, society, and resilient/green economic recovery – densification and diversification of land uses on already transformed land.

• Increasing wildfires - their intersection with biodiversity and ecosystem health, human health and well-being, and the climate.  

 In the World Scientists Warning of a Climate Emergency published on 5 November 2019 the following recommendation for "Nature" was made:

"We must protect and restore Earth’s ecosystems. Phytoplankton, coral reefs, forests, savannas, grasslands, wetlands, peatlands, soils, mangroves, and sea grasses contribute greatly to sequestration of atmospheric CO2. Marine and terrestrial plants, animals, and microorganisms play significant roles in carbon and nutrient cycling and storage. We need to quickly curtail habitat and biodiversity loss (figure 1f–1g), protecting the remaining primary and intact forests, especially those with high carbon stores and other forests with the capacity to rapidly sequester carbon (proforestation), while increasing reforestation and afforestation where appropriate at enormous scales. Although available land may be limiting in places, up to a third of emissions reductions needed by 2030 for the Paris agreement (less than 2°C) could be obtained with these natural climate solutions (Griscom et al. 2017)."

The expert panel includes:

Prof. Phoebe Barnard - biodiversity conservation biologist, climate risk and resilience specialist, global change ecologist, environmental futures analyst and sustainability strategist - Chief Scientific and Policy Officer with the Conservation Biology Institute

Prof. Chris Rapley - Professor of Climate Science at University College London.

Dr Mao Amis - the co-founder and Executive Director of the African Centre for a Green Economy (AfriCGE)