If you look behind the headlines on recent climate and biodiversity progress, there is growing recognition that how these efforts interact is critical.
Recent landmark agreements have broken long-standing global stalemates on climate change and biological diversity. The U.N. climate summit in Egypt last November (COP27) struck a historic deal to provide “loss and damage” funding for vulnerable countries hit hard by climate disasters.
Then in December, the U.N. Biodiversity Conference in Montreal (COP15) concluded with the ambitious Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. It aims to halt and reverse global nature loss by the year 2030, and similarly proposed to increase finance to developing countries — a major sticking point during the talks.
But the progress made behind the headlines may be equally important: Both agreements embraced the concept of climate-biodiversity synergies — policies and approaches that can advance both priorities in a mutually reinforcing way.
For nearly half a century, multilateral agreements promoted measures often involving diverging approaches, with these then impinging across the boundaries of each other.
For example, there are existential trade-offs and synergies between climate and biodiversity issues. Most of the trade-offs arise when climate measures focus narrowly on mitigation: Forests, which have generally been referred to as important carbon sinks in decisions under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, in fact provide many other vital benefits to people and communities.
But unfortunately, the world could not see beyond the most visible and tangible value of forests. This obviously led national governments to follow a siloed approach. Now, however, the international community has started to promote synergies, calling for integrated efforts that are both “nature positive” and “carbon negative.”
No doubt, land and ocean ecosystems are also major carbon sinks, and their conservation is key to achieving net-zero emissions. However, ocean acidification and the increasing destruction of forests due to economic exploitation has depleted biodiversity to the extent that the planet is already enduring its sixth mass extinction event.
Current trends of biodiversity loss and overburdened natural ecosystems further challenge climate adaptation.
Biodiversity loss also has serious impacts on people’s health, and these are starting to be more widely recognized. This has led to the new concept of “One Health,” which aims to promote the health of people, animals and the environment in an integrated way. We have all experienced the sensation of improved well-being during a walk in the woods or a park when we hear the birds singing. Attention was drawn to this phenomenon by Rachel Carson in her 1962 book “Silent Spring,” which expressed the fear that this luxury may one day disappear. The day of reckoning may be nearer than she imagined.
Thankfully, the global scientific and political community is beginning to look at the world through the lens of synergy. This encourages thinking in terms of a “nexus” that includes climate, biodiversity, food, water and health. The COP27 agreement underlined the urgent need to address the interlinked global crises of climate change and biodiversity loss in the broader context of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as the vital importance of protecting, conserving, restoring and sustainably using nature and ecosystems. Parties were encouraged to implement nature-based solutions for mitigation and adaptation while ensuring relevant social and environmental safeguards.
Scientific evidence can guide the international policy process toward this synergistic approach. Last year, both COP27 and COP15 discussed important issues concerning the interlinking of climate, nature and people; the integration of biodiversity and climate goals at the national and international level; and more effective and efficient use of finance.
As a result of the constant push for integrated action, one of the 23 targets adopted at COP15 to be achieved by 2030 is minimizing the impact of climate change on biodiversity and increasing its resilience through mitigation, adaptation and disaster risk reduction. This can be achieved through nature-based solutions and ecosystem-based approaches while minimizing negative — and fostering the positive — impacts of climate action on biodiversity. Another target focuses on optimizing co-benefits and synergies of finance targeting the biodiversity and climate crises.
While these two targets directly cater to synergies, the overall “30x30” target — protecting 30% of the Earth’s land and ocean by 2030 — will also be critical to achieving climate goals and the SDGs in the long run. Looking forward, it is important to recognize that even though biodiversity is a national resource, its loss is a global challenge. Just like climate change, biodiversity loss can affect our daily lives, food security and health.
Both issues need to be given equal global attention, and this will also help integrate national policies on them. Across national governments, city governments and the private sector, there is more focus on climate action than biodiversity issues, and therefore understanding of synergies between the two interlinked priorities must be deepened.
The upcoming meeting of Group of Seven environment ministers in Sapporo on April 15 and 16 could constitute a unique window of opportunity for stakeholders to advance this momentum on climate–biodiversity synergies.
Himangana Gupta is a research fellow and academic associate at the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS). She is an expert on climate change and biodiversity policy and diplomacy, and is currently working on issues related to climate-biodiversity nexus and SDGs. She is also serving as the lead author in the U.N. IPBES Nexus Assessment Report.
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