The climate crisis has galvanised immediate action around the world, particularly in the development and implementation of innovative climate mitigation and adaptation strategies. Some of these strategies involve protecting or restoring natural ecosystems to reduce carbon emissions or capture carbon dioxide from the air. Together these strategies are known as nature-based climate solutions.

Spearheading this effort at NUS is Professor Koh Lian Pin, an expert in the field of sustainability and environmental science, and Director of the Centre for Nature-based Climate Solutions (CNCS). Prof Koh is also the Director of the Tropical Marine Science Institute, and the Vice Dean of Research and Development at the Faculty of Science.

The goal of the CNCS is to produce cutting-edge science to inform climate policies, strategies and actions in Singapore and the Asia-Pacific region. Prof Koh seeks to achieve this by understanding the impacts of climate change on both humans and the environment and identifying nature-based solutions for climate mitigation and adaptation. Finally, he seeks strategies to overcome barriers that hinder the implementation of these solutions. By developing science-based decision-support tools, he seeks to reconcile environmental protection with socioeconomic development.

Prof Koh is currently focusing his research on the tropics, which is a region rich in biodiversity, yet undergoing rapid population growth, and is therefore under immediate threat. The key to avoiding further destruction and degradation of the environment in the region is to promote sustainable solutions that include conservation, restoration, and improvement in the management of natural habitats. In the midst of balancing competing priorities and trade-offs, the ultimate goal is to attain solutions that are scientifically sound, economically feasible and socially acceptable.