The Role of Nature in Climate Change Leadership
Why Nature is foundational to Climate Change Leadership
Nature matters because organisations do not operate outside the natural world. They are embedded within, dependent upon and have impacts on ecological systems that provide the resources, stability and ecosystem services on which economies and societies depend (IPBES, 2019; UNEP, 2021). Climate Change Leadership therefore cannot be concerned with carbon emissions alone. It must also address biodiversity loss, ecosystem degradation and the capacity of nature to recover and flourish (MacKie, 2023, 2026).
From climate change to climate and nature
The climate and biodiversity crises are interconnected. Climate change is a major driver of biodiversity loss, while degraded ecosystems reduce resilience and can weaken natural carbon sinks (IPBES, 2019; UNEP, 2021). Organisational responses that focus narrowly on emissions can therefore miss important dependencies, impacts and trade-offs. Climate Change Leadership requires leaders to understand both climate and nature as interdependent dimensions of the same ecological challenge (MacKie, 2026).
Ecological embeddedness and planetary boundaries
Conventional business thinking has often treated the natural environment as an external context or an unlimited source of inputs. A stronger sustainability perspective reverses this logic: the economy exists within society, and both exist within the biosphere. Organisations are consequently constrained by ecological limits rather than separate from them. Planetary boundaries provide an important scientific framework for understanding these limits and the risks created when human activity pushes Earth systems beyond a safe operating space (Rockström et al., 2009; Steffen et al., 2015; Richardson et al., 2023).
From anthropocentrism to ecological reflexivity
Nature Matters also requires a shift in worldview. Anthropocentric approaches value nature primarily for its usefulness to people and organisations. More ecocentric approaches recognise the intrinsic as well as instrumental value of other species and ecosystems. For leadership, this requires ecological reflexivity: the capacity to examine organisational assumptions, decisions and practices in light of their consequences for the wider living systems in which the organisation is embedded (MacKie, 2026).
From weak to strong sustainability
Weak sustainability assumes that losses in natural capital can often be compensated for by financial, technological or human capital. Strong sustainability recognises that some ecological assets, functions and thresholds are critical, non-substitutable and potentially irreversible (Ekins et al., 2003). This distinction changes the leadership question from how an organisation can compensate for environmental harm to how it can operate within ecological limits while protecting and restoring the systems on which it depends.
Nature Positive
The Nature Positive agenda extends organisational attention beyond reducing harm towards halting and reversing nature loss. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework provides an important international context, including expectations concerning the assessment and disclosure of business dependencies, impacts and risks, and the reduction of negative impacts on biodiversity (Convention on Biological Diversity [CBD], 2022). For organisations, a credible Nature Positive approach requires measurable outcomes, clear baselines and attention to the integrity of claims rather than simply adopting the language of nature positivity. The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures similarly provides a framework for identifying, assessing, managing and disclosing nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities (TNFD, 2023).
Nature-based solutions, restoration and regeneration
Nature-based solutions can contribute to climate mitigation, adaptation, biodiversity and human wellbeing when they protect, sustainably manage or restore ecosystems (IUCN, 2020). They are not, however, interchangeable with carbon offsets or a substitute for direct emissions reduction. Restorative and regenerative approaches go further by asking how organisational activity can contribute to the recovery, resilience and flourishing of ecological and social systems (MacKie, 2026).
Implications for Climate Change Leadership
- Develop ecological literacy alongside climate literacy.
- Identify material organisational dependencies and impacts on nature, not only emissions.
- Integrate biodiversity and ecological limits into strategy, investment and operational decisions.
- Distinguish harm reduction and compensation from restoration, regeneration and genuinely nature-positive outcomes.
- Include affected stakeholders, future generations and the more-than-human world in the ethical frame of leadership decisions.
- Measure outcomes and scrutinise the integrity of nature, biodiversity and carbon claims.
Nature Matters and the CCL model
Within CCL, Nature Matters provides the ecological context for organisational transformation. Psychology influences how people perceive and respond to ecological risk; leadership establishes purpose and direction; business translates this into strategy and operations; governance creates accountability; and learning develops the capabilities required for change. Nature therefore is not an environmental add-on to CCL. It helps define the boundaries, responsibilities and desired outcomes of effective climate change leadership (MacKie, 2023, 2026).