Drawdown Nexus

Climate change poses an urgent threat to people and our planet today. But it’s not the only global challenge we face. Equally in need of attention is the alarming loss in biodiversity that has put Earth on the precipice of a sixth extinction. And both of these have huge implications for human well-being – which in turn has implications for climate change and biodiversity loss alike.

The good news: Just as these three daunting challenges are intertwined, so too can be the solutions. 

Drawdown Nexus aims to tap the connections among climate change, biodiversity loss, and human well-being to build a robust, evidence-based framework change-makers around the world can use to identify and prioritize actions that simultaneously abate climate change, protect nature, and enhance human well-being. 

Going beyond existing, often disconnected, efforts to address these three big challenges, Drawdown Nexus will:

​​Take a holistic approach. Drawdown Nexus will identify and characterize a set of technologies and practices that address the full spectrum of greenhouse gas sources, take an ecosystems approach to biodiversity protection, and address multiple dimensions of human well-being, including adaptation, resilience, vulnerability, equity, and economic stability. 

Center science. We will bring Project Drawdown’s signature scientific rigor to our work assessing the effectiveness, cost, and feasibility of a holistic set of solutions.

Put people first. Drawdown Nexus will prioritize climate and biodiversity solutions in low- and middle-income countries where they can meet people’s needs quickly. For example, while agroforestry may benefit climate, biodiversity, and people everywhere, some places will have an outsized impact on people’s lives. 

Use a geographic lens. Much work to date has taken place on a national, regional, or global level. Drawdown Nexus will parse effectiveness by location, identifying geographic “sweet spots” for best addressing climate change, biodiversity, and human well-being together so framework users can prioritize resources and actions for greatest impact in their area of focus. 

Drawdown Nexus will dramatically expand humanity’s capacity to advance sustainable development, protect biodiversity, and mitigate climate change together by identifying and creating strategies for pursuing the most synergistic and most impactful opportunities to address all three simultaneously. The result: Our best chance to gain traction on, and ultimately solve, all three. 

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Thank you to the Bainum Family Foundation, the Doris Duke Foundation, Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, and Partners for Change for their support of the Drawdown Nexus initiative.