Audubon Report Shows That Important Bird Habitats are Key Natural Solutions to Climate Change
Press RoomImportant ecosystems for birds can also store tens of millions of tons of carbon naturally if maintained and restored.

Audubon taps into people’s love of birds to protect them from climate change.
Audubon works with federal decision makers both in the nation’s capital and at home in their backyards to achieve common sense solutions to climate change. We engage with our 1.7 million members and the 45 million Americans who consider themselves birders to make complex environmental impacts tangible.
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Natural solutions rely on living things that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, like forests, prairies, sea grass, and soil. We call these features carbon sinks because they remove more emissions from the atmosphere than they emit. The restoration of these places, as well as diversified agricultural practices like soil sequestration and responsible livestock and land management, can draw down emissions while simultaneously improving critical bird habitat.
Important ecosystems for birds can also store tens of millions of tons of carbon naturally if maintained and restored.
The historic proposal would represent a significant opportunity to address climate risks to birds, people, and places we need.
While some priorities remain to be addressed, the infrastructure and reconciliation bills together represent the nation’s largest investment in addressing the causes and impacts of climate change.
While we currently rely on fossil fuels to generate the majority of our electricity, there are a number of options that do not emit greenhouse gases as they operate, like wind turbines, photovoltaic solar panels, and geothermal energy. Replacing fossil fuel-burning power plants with cleaner alternatives, including energy storage, is essential to reducing emissions.
State and federal standards that require electricity suppliers to provide 100% clean electricity can drive this change. Audubon supports the expansion of renewable energy that avoids, minimizes, and mitigates impacts to birds and their habitat.
The revived Vineyard Wind Project will be a powerful force for reducing emissions, protecting both people and wildlife from the effects of climate change.
Raptors and wind energy have a fraught history. Could these innovations allow them to co-exist?
New jointly-written white paper provides principles and framework for buying and developing renewable energy projects with positive impacts on local communities, conservation efforts, and the climate.
Examples of economy-wide solutions include placing a fee on carbon emissions, which would require businesses to pay for each metric ton of carbon emitted. With a price on carbon emissions, sources that continue to emit emissions would either pay for their impact or find a new way to do business that is less harmful to the climate. Revenues could be invested in clean energy innovation, returned to consumers, or put to any number of productive uses.
WASHINGTON (March 10, 2021) -- A new bill would establish a price on carbon emissions to fund grants and loans for projects that address climate ch
The Market Choice Act marks an important opportunity to advance the conversation on climate solutions.
The proposal, which was discussed at the White House last week, takes a conservative approach to climate action. But it runs into a problem central to all carbon taxes: deciding how to spend the raised funds.
Many of the solutions we will need to achieve a zero-carbon future have already been developed, but there are still gaps—for instance, in the wide deployment of energy storage—where technological innovation can further increase effectiveness or drive down costs. We must dedicate resources to institutions and researchers who are working to answer questions like how to make the electrical grid more secure and reliable, whether it is possible to design more efficient electrical generation units, and whether it is possible to capture greenhouse gases from the air and permanently sequester them.
The omnibus energy bill comprises bipartisan bills from the House and Senate, and includes measures addressing everything from renewables and efficiency to nuclear energy and carbon capture.
The American Innovation and Manufacturing Act is “one of the strongest actions that Congress has taken to directly address climate change.”
As Congress makes plans to recover from the COVID crisis, they must plan for the future by supporting legislation that saves and creates jobs, while also creating a cleaner and healthier world.
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