NUS Centre for Nature-based Climate Solutions

🥋 Should (some) individuals also understand and chart their path to net zero? 🧱 Earlier this month, we hosted Associate Professor Alberto Salvo for a webinar (https://lnkd.in/gaJz45gX) where he reflected on the difficulty of navigating personal and professional obligations without increasing environmental harm. He touched on individual and systemic approaches to climate action and highlighted how tools like carbon taxes and education could help motivate sustainable choices among the affluent. Alberto has kindly shared his presentation with everyone, you may find it here: https://lnkd.in/gXNpHERD

😃 Don't miss this! For more information and to register, visit: https://lnkd.in/gQgYUVaH

Mongabay Founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler will be giving a public lecture at the NUS Centre for Nature-based Climate Solutions on 18 Nov 2025 in Singapore.

🖼️ HOW STORIES SHAPE THE PLANET: What I've learned about communicating science from 25 years of Mongabay 📼 The Centre is excited to welcome Rhett Ayers Butler, Founder & CEO of Mongabay, for a talk and fireside chat in NUS! Date: 18 November 2025, Tuesday Time: 10.30AM – 12PM Venue: University Hall Auditorium (Level 2), National University of Singapore To register and for more information: https://lnkd.in/gQgYUVaH Rhett will give a wide-ranging talk on how nature reporting can bridge science, society, and hope. Drawing on 25 years of experience leading one of the world’s largest environmental newsrooms, he will share lessons from Mongabay’s evolution—from a one-person website into a global, multilingual network reporting from more than 80 countries 🕰️ The talk will explore how clear, compelling communication can translate complex science into stories that inform action and policy; how journalism can contribute to measurable real-world impact; and what scientists can learn from journalistic storytelling to reach broader audiences. Rhett will also discuss the changing media landscape, including the challenges of polarization, misinformation, and news avoidance, and how approaches like solutions journalism can restore trust and agency. Blending personal reflection with practical insights, he will offer a hopeful perspective on how storytelling, when done with empathy and evidence, can reconnect people with the natural world and one another ⛰️ After his sharing, Rhett will also sit down for an interactive and cozy forest-side chat with the audience. He will be joined by Sankar Ananthanarayanan, a PhD Candidate at the Theoretical Ecology Lab (NUS DBS) and a Co-founder of the Herpetological Society of Singapore, who will facilitate the conversation and Q&A with the audience. All are welcome! 🤩

Economic growth has lifted millions from poverty — but degraded land, poor air, and water stress now threaten that progress. Over 90% of people worldwide experience at least one environmental stressor, and in low-income countries, 80% face all three. These pressures are not just environmental — they are economic liabilities, quietly eroding productivity, health, and opportunity. The World Bank’s new flagship report, “Reboot Development: The Economics of a Livable Planet”, led by Richard Damania, Chief Economist at the World Bank, makes the case that nature is a powerful driver of growth. Smarter management of land, air, and water, coupled with cleaner economies and coordinated policies, can unlock economic benefits, create jobs, and strengthen resilience. The NUS Centre for Nature-based Climate Solutions is delighted to host Richard for a presentation of the report’s key insights. Learn how countries can rethink development, turn environmental challenges into economic opportunities, and build a livable, prosperous future for all. Associate Professor Román Carrasco, NUS Sustainable Futures (NSF) Co-Director, will also sit down with Richard for a conversation and audience Q&A segment. 📅Date: 19 November 2025 (Wednesday) 🕒Time: 3 pm – 5 pm [Talk starts at 3.30pm] 📍Venue: University Hall, Auditorium (Level 2), National University of Singapore, 21 Lower Kent Ridge Rd, Singapore 119077 <https://lnkd.in/gUfxwKSH> 👉 Register here: https://lnkd.in/g7C-YV4y 🎙️About the Speaker: Richard Damania is the Chief Economist of the Sustainable Development Practice Group at the World Bank. He has held several positions in the organization including as Senior Economic Advisor in the Water Practice, Lead Economist in the Africa Region’s Sustainable Development Department, in the South Asia and Latin America and Caribbean Regions of the World Bank. Prior to joining the World Bank, he held positions in academia and was Professor of Economics at the University of Adelaide. He has published extensively with over 100 papers in scientific journals. This event is co-hosted with NSF (NUS Sustainability) and is part of their Distinguished Lecture Series.

The upcoming UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) this month will be unlike any before, as it takes place for the first time in the heart of the Amazon rainforest. From the urgent fight to protect the world’s largest forest to the growing push to bridge climate and biodiversity action, COP30 stands as a pivotal moment for our planet’s future. What happens in the Amazon will resonate across the globe and shape the path toward a sustainable, climate-resilient future for everyone.

From climate finance and carbon markets to gender equality and loss and damage — COP29 set the stage for what’s next at COP30.   As the world turns its attention to Brazil next month, these outcomes will shape how nations move from negotiation to implementation — and test the strength of global cooperation in the decade ahead 🌍   Swipe to revisit the key outcomes of COP29!

We are running a webinar by Associate Professor Alberto Salvo on individual choices and efforts as a contributor to structural transformation!   Date: 6 November 2025, Thursday Time: 10.00AM to 11.30AM (SGT) Register here: https://lnkd.in/gcDThy4t   In parallel with global climate negotiations at the UNFCCC COP, various climate actors – from national and local governments to firms large and small – are increasingly learning and accounting for how their 🧮 economic activity maps onto greenhouse-gas emissions. Yet the most numerous (and arguably most consequential) actors -- 👩🏾🔬 🧑🏼⚕️ 🧑🏽⚖️ 👩🏻💼 🧑🏻✈️ 🧑🏽🎤 👩🏼💻 hundreds of millions of affluent individuals -- are too often overlooked and their role is underemphasized. Among their multiple roles, individuals as consumers pull supply chains; as citizens they back political leaders and embolden them to implement policies to accelerate the energy and food transitions in the coming decades. Yet public education has largely missed 📊 (i) which individual actions meaningfully reduce versus increase environmental damage, and (ii) how shifts in individual lifestyle choices -- often low‑cost or even personally beneficial -- can collectively drive positive change and ease 🪂 climate anxiety. Alberto will present ongoing NUS research that uses positive framing to show how short‑run "downstream" choices in transport and food markets map onto carbon emissions and deliver health and nutrition co‑benefits, with the aim of reshaping understanding of individuals' "upstream" role as 🪆 climate citizens.   About the Speaker: Associate Professor Alberto Salvo is an environmental economist and behavioural social scientist at the National University of Singapore. He holds a Dean’s Chair award in the Department of Economics at the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. He also serves on the University Sustainability and Climate Action Council (NUS Sustainability) and is the Lead Principal Investigator in the Social Sciences at the Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein @NUS. Beyond NUS, he is co-editor of the Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists and a member of the editorial council at the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management.

Honoured to represent the NUS Centre for Nature-based Climate Solutions at the launch of our new report, "High-Risk Forests, High-Value Returns", developed in collaboration with UN-REDD. 🌳 Our analysis shows that protecting tropical forests most at risk of deforestation can deliver the greatest co-benefits - not only for carbon, but also for water security, food production, livelihoods, and disaster resilience. It was a pleasure to lead ths research together with Prof Lian Pin Koh, and our UN-REDD colleagues Katrina Borromeo and Gabriel Labbate. #NatureBasedSolutions #ClimateAction #Forests #UNREDD #Sustainability