World Land Trust (WLT) attended the ChangeNOW Summit in Paris, joining 40,000 attendees from 140 countries to pitch solutions, showcase innovations, and commit to action. Credit: World Land Trust
By Catherine Barnard, World Land Trust CEO
Ten years on from the Paris Climate Agreement, the 2025 ChangeNOW Summit took place in Paris in late April. Attending with World Land Trust (WLT) colleagues for the first time, the summit for me, and no doubt for many others, marked a point of reflection and, more critically, one of acceleration. 40,000 attendees from 140 countries arrived to pitch solutions, showcase innovations, and commit to action. With this year standing at the midway point of this pivotal decade, the overriding question is clear: what change can we drive now? The results of this summit were far more than symbolic, it was a crucial opportunity to spotlight WLT and the wider conservation community as solution providers, not sidelines to carbon. The need for credible, nature-based solutions has never been more urgent. We have already breached a 1.5° rise since that target was agreed at the landmark agreement ten years ago. This is no longer a warning – it is a reality.
There is an ever-growing trend towards technological fixes, especially in carbon capture and storage, and a belief that we can simply engineer ourselves out of the problem. While I believe these tools certainly have a place and given where we are we need everything we can get, they are increasingly being used as a ‘get out of jail free card’ by governments and oil companies, which they simply are not. We ust not let the technologies, which are still in their infancy, dominate the conversation or divert investment away from what we know beyond a doubt already works: nature itself. Habitats like forests, wetlands, and mangroves are the planet’s tried and tested means of sequestering carbon. Not only that, but they protect biodiversity, stabilise landscapes, and support livelihoods. Whilst I also believe that we need greater private financial capital in this area we must learn the lessons from carbon markets where we have seen how profit-led actors can compromise credibility and integrity in these spaces.
Catherine Barnard at the ChangeNow Summit advocating for nature-based solutions to the climate crisis. Credit: World Land Trust
This is where conservation NGOs have a vital role, we offer a counterbalance to capital-driven approaches. But this means we must all speak up and show that our models are not only ethical, but effective. Private investment in conservation is needed but it must come with robust safeguards to avoid greenwashing and bring private companies into the fold in a meaningful way. So how do we mobilise this kind of action at pace? It begins by recognising that nature-based solutions are not supplementary, they are essential infrastructure for our future. We must stop treating them as secondary to innovation and start backing them with the same urgency and investment.
The 2025 ChangeNOW Summit has shown that the appetite for change is there. The challenge is now direction. In our rush to act, we must be sure not to forget that nature, when protected, restored, and respected, remains our most powerful ally.
