Senate majority leader, and Chair of the Global Board of Directors for The Nature Conservancy nonprofit. He has emerged as a prominent Republican advocate for climate action, seeking to bridge the partisan divide by emphasizing how protecting the environment benefits human health. Earlier this year, he was interviewed on stage by former Vice President Al Gore, telling the audience that climate change is the “number one force multiplier” in many public health problems.
What is the single most important action you think the public, or a specific company or government, needs to take in the next year to advance the climate agenda? I believe the single most important action next year is to dramatically scale new financing mechanisms already bringing billions of dollars into conservation and climate action. As The Nature Conservancy's Global Board Chair, I have watched two recently developed tools move from experiment to proof.
First, Nature Bonds, which TNC helped pioneer, allow countries to refinance sovereign debt on significantly better terms and direct the savings into long-term conservation. Six projects are expected to unlock approximately $1 billion. Second, Project Finance for Permanence (PFP) uniquely brings governments, Indigenous Peoples and local communities, philanthropy, and private capital into a single overarching agreement, tying certain funding commitments to community benefits, measurable outcomes, and accountability.
Through Enduring Earth, PFPs have secured more than $2 billion in sustainable financing while supporting durable conservation across 245 million hectares. Gabon shows how the tools can reinforce each other. Building on a successful 2023 Nature Bonds transaction, the Gabon Infini PFP launched in 2026 aims to mobilize up to $200 million over a decade for nature, communities, and climate resilience.
Now is the time for governments, development banks, philanthropy and investors to take them to the scale our climate and biodiversity challenges demand. What’s one sustainability effort you personally will try to adopt in the next year? Over the next year, my wife, Tracy, and I will build on a 25-year effort to restore Sinking Creek Farm and make it a living laboratory for biodiversity, education, and community action.
Tracy first envisioned this work, and together we have helped overgrazed pastures, forests and streams recover in a high mountain valley of Central Appalachia. Our goal now is to ensure that what we have learned does not remain on our farm. This spring, in partnership with the Southeastern Grasslands Institute, Virginia Tech scientists, iNaturalist, and other collaborators, we conducted a BioBlitz—an intensive effort to document as many species as possible in a short period.
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