This Country is Upping Its Game in the Fight Against Climate Change

Through an executive order aimed to address the climate crisis, the President of the United States Joe Biden commits to the ambitious conservation goal to protect 30% of the country’s land and coastal seas by 2030.

The country currently protects some 26% of its coastal waters and only 12% of its land. The “30 by 30” target has three objectives at its core: conserve species put in danger by development, protect ecosystems that can hold up carbon, and restore degraded habitats. Achieving this target would contribute to fighting climate change and to protecting the estimated one million species that could potentially go extinct.

“The conservation crisis is as important as the climate crisis,” says Tom Cors, government relations director for land at the Nature Conservancy. He sees the decision to tackle the “30 by 30” target as both “daunting and heartening.” The country needs to protect the equivalent of twice the size of the state of Texas within the next decade.

A few ideas to help achieve the “30 by 30” target are already in place, such as imposing a moratorium on all new federal oil and gas leases, creating and restoring national monuments, and increasing the size of the area protected by the National Park Service.