So far, our climate solutions funding and carbon credit portfolio has mostly focused on nature-based solutions like reduced deforestation, forest ecosystem restoration, rangeland management, and mangrove restoration. Nature is the world’s most powerful carbon sink, and investments in nature can provide benefits for people across all sustainable development goals. The total mitigation potential of nature-based solutions is between 5 and 11.7 gigatons of CO2e per year according to the UN Environment Programme (2021). Unlocking the full potential of nature-based solutions will be determined by how well, how much, and how fast we invest. If we succeed, nature-based solutions could close about one third of the overall estimated emissions gap. Stopping deforestation alone could lower global greenhouse gas emissions by 10%. We support nature because it is the right thing to do for people and the planet on many levels, including building a more resilient society through more resilient ecosystems. In this spirit, Salesforce is a co-founder of the 1 trillion tree initiative, 1t.org. It provides a global learning platform where we can all improve our approach to forest ecosystem restoration, with benefits for people, nature, and climate. Despite their enormous potential, climate goals solutions only received 8% of climate finance in 2017-20183 and face a $711 billion annual funding gap through 2030 to reach their potential for climate and biodiversity. This lack of other funding makes them both well suited for and in desperate need of carbon markets. However, the emissions avoided or removed as a result of nature-based solutions also face serious risks of being undone or reversed, for instance by fires or agriculture-driven deforestation. Carbon credits are mainly used to compensate for greenhouse gas emissions, which will remain in the atmosphere for hundreds to thousands of years. So if the emissions avoided or removed by a nature-based solutions project are undone, any claims made using the carbon credits from that project are no longer true. Some believe this risk is high enough to warrant stopping investments in nature via carbon markets entirely. However, forests and other ecosystems, if measured across large enough areas, are highly stable over millennia, and the science is clear: Nature in aggregate must play a major role in mitigating climate change. We believe the risk of reversal is motivation to improve the quality and durability of nature-based credits so they can reach their full potential. To that end, we’re working to develop new forms of carbon credits that further mitigate risks with partners like the LEAF coalition, which generates credits from entire countries and jurisdictions rather than more vulnerable individual projects. 3Source: https://nature4climate.org/news/a-snapshot-of-nbs-in-action-today/. 6 | A JUST TRANSITION TO A NET ZERO, NATURE POSITIVE WORLD