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Now, Nature, Next: the climate choice you no longer need to make

If you’re tired of having to navigate the trade-off between making a difference now or getting to net zero later, or between protecting nature and investing in innovation, we have good news. There is now a way to have it all. We’re calling it “now-nature-next”.

The “now” comes from an old asset with a shiny new name: superpollutants. These gases - methane, HFCs, nitrous oxide - are “super” in the sense they punch way above their weight in terms of climate impact. They’re responsible for 35–50% of today’s warming. Unlike CO₂, many break down within years, which means cutting them today can have a measurable impact on warming within a decade. Think of this as an acute intervention on the crisis unfolding today, including the risk of crossing tipping points, while we continue tackling the chronic, long-term problem. Superpollutant credits are also typically both very high quality and very affordable.

Then there’s nature. Nature-based carbon removals give us something different again: carbon removal that can happen at meaningful scale today, on a timescale of decades, alongside more sustainable supply chains, healthier soils, better water resilience, biodiversity and stronger livelihoods.

And finally there’s next: the high-durability removals we know the world needs to reach and sustain net zero. Because these projects don’t yet exist at scale, they need to be built, and it will take a while to get them in play. I say “next”, but that doesn’t mean waiting. Quite the opposite: these solutions need buyers now, so projects can get financed, supply can grow and costs can come down before we need them at enormous scale.

Put those together and you get a very interesting opportunity. Instead of asking companies to choose between affordable climate impact today and expensive technologies for tomorrow, we can build a portfolio that does some, most or all of the above: superpollutants for now, nature at scale in the next few decades, and high-durability removals for the long haul - with investment starting today for all of them. Because superpollutants are lower cost, blending them in also makes the economics much more tractable, allowing companies to have substantially more climate impact for a given budget while still helping build the solutions they will need in the future.

That, for us, is the exciting part. Climate action doesn’t have to be a choice between what makes a difference now and what gets us to net zero later. A well-designed portfolio can stretch across time: cooling the climate now, restoring nature along the way, and building the next generation of climate solutions before we need them. Now, nature, next - all starting now.

 

Dr Gabrielle Walker

Co-Founder & Chief Scientist at CUR8