iven the overwhelming planet–wide climate governance challenges and failures so far, and the apparent impossibility of broad governance to tackle climate change internationally for now, it is time to flip the script on ourselves and go radically local and intensely biomimetic in climate governance.
That means doing at least two things.
- Working on climate solutions at the most local level, with action at the individual, family, community, organizational, rural and urban contexts, and via cross–functional collaboration among all: business, civil society and government.
- Deploying biomimetics and biomimicry in everything we do. We must ask in the context of climate change mitigation: How would nature do it? And what can we learn from nature to apply locally?
Hence my exhortation for humans to move from a concept of governance over or of nature to governance by (and learning from) nature.
Don’t get me wrong, I would love to see broad global consensus and concerted effective action to achieve the objectives of the Paris Climate Accords and the relevant Sustainable Development Goals. But we’ve tried that for a while with very limited success.
A hard pivot is now necessary in the face of the degrading global consensus. The rise of geopolitical tectonic shifts and ruptures—mainly caused by the current U.S. administration and its move fast / break things approach to diplomacy, climate and international relations generally—hasn’t helped either.
So, how to shift to a more local– and nature–inspired climate governance?
There are many great examples, and what we need to survive (for now) and thrive (later) is to consciously and conscientiously shift to learning about and mimicking these examples, including:
- Barcelona, Spain—urban rewilding program: Nature is being reintroduced into urban spaces for cooling, biodiversity, and carbon absorption. Green corridors and rewilded lots act as natural regulators of heat and water cycles.
- Cagayan de Oro, Philippines—Primavera Residences: Twin–tower housing uses ant colony airflow and Bahay Kubo design principles, achieving ~30% reduction in air–conditioning energy use.
- Niger—regenerating forests through farmer–led biomimicry and farmer–managed natural regeneration (FMNR): By pruning and protecting native tree stumps to regrow forests, farmers have restored over five million hectares in Niger’s Sahel; improving soil moisture, crop yields, and drought resilience.
- Coastal Asia and Africa—protecting shores with nature–inspired mangrove design: Communities restore mangrove belts as living sea walls to buffer storms, prevent erosion, and store carbon; mimics natural coastal ecosystems: sediment trapping, wave attenuation, biodiversity corridors.
- Burkina Faso—restoring soils through termite–inspired farming Zaï pits: small compost–filled planting holes that attract termites, whose tunnels improve infiltration and aeration; used on degraded land to boost yields of millet and sorghum by up to 300%.
We’ve now entered the survival phase of the planetary climate challenge. Let’s do anything and everything we can to mitigate the worst effects of this period with deeply local and intensely biomimetic solutions—whether or not a more rational global approach becomes possible in the future.
Better to have a decentralized “1,000 points of light” (or maybe millions or billions) than to rely too heavily on an atrophied global approach.
a global affairs media network
From global governance of nature to local governance by nature
Photo by Kristine Weilert on Unsplash.
November 17, 2025
Attempts at concerted global action are failing—for now—to effectively tackle climate change. The path forward requires flipping the script and taking lessons from nature’s own systems, writes Andrea Bonime–Blanc.
G
iven the overwhelming planet–wide climate governance challenges and failures so far, and the apparent impossibility of broad governance to tackle climate change internationally for now, it is time to flip the script on ourselves and go radically local and intensely biomimetic in climate governance.
That means doing at least two things.
- Working on climate solutions at the most local level, with action at the individual, family, community, organizational, rural and urban contexts, and via cross–functional collaboration among all: business, civil society and government.
- Deploying biomimetics and biomimicry in everything we do. We must ask in the context of climate change mitigation: How would nature do it? And what can we learn from nature to apply locally?
Hence my exhortation for humans to move from a concept of governance over or of nature to governance by (and learning from) nature.
Don’t get me wrong, I would love to see broad global consensus and concerted effective action to achieve the objectives of the Paris Climate Accords and the relevant Sustainable Development Goals. But we’ve tried that for a while with very limited success.
A hard pivot is now necessary in the face of the degrading global consensus. The rise of geopolitical tectonic shifts and ruptures—mainly caused by the current U.S. administration and its move fast / break things approach to diplomacy, climate and international relations generally—hasn’t helped either.
So, how to shift to a more local– and nature–inspired climate governance?
There are many great examples, and what we need to survive (for now) and thrive (later) is to consciously and conscientiously shift to learning about and mimicking these examples, including:
- Barcelona, Spain—urban rewilding program: Nature is being reintroduced into urban spaces for cooling, biodiversity, and carbon absorption. Green corridors and rewilded lots act as natural regulators of heat and water cycles.
- Cagayan de Oro, Philippines—Primavera Residences: Twin–tower housing uses ant colony airflow and Bahay Kubo design principles, achieving ~30% reduction in air–conditioning energy use.
- Niger—regenerating forests through farmer–led biomimicry and farmer–managed natural regeneration (FMNR): By pruning and protecting native tree stumps to regrow forests, farmers have restored over five million hectares in Niger’s Sahel; improving soil moisture, crop yields, and drought resilience.
- Coastal Asia and Africa—protecting shores with nature–inspired mangrove design: Communities restore mangrove belts as living sea walls to buffer storms, prevent erosion, and store carbon; mimics natural coastal ecosystems: sediment trapping, wave attenuation, biodiversity corridors.
- Burkina Faso—restoring soils through termite–inspired farming Zaï pits: small compost–filled planting holes that attract termites, whose tunnels improve infiltration and aeration; used on degraded land to boost yields of millet and sorghum by up to 300%.
We’ve now entered the survival phase of the planetary climate challenge. Let’s do anything and everything we can to mitigate the worst effects of this period with deeply local and intensely biomimetic solutions—whether or not a more rational global approach becomes possible in the future.
Better to have a decentralized “1,000 points of light” (or maybe millions or billions) than to rely too heavily on an atrophied global approach.
