Unprecedented changes in climate and biodiversity, driven by human activities, are posing a synergistic and growing threat to nature, human lives, livelihoods and well-being worldwide. Biodiversity loss and climate change are both driven by human economic activities and reinforce each other. Neither of these problems will be successfully resolved unless they are tackled together. This is the message of a workshop report published today by 50 of the world's leading biodiversity and climate experts?
The peer-reviewed workshop report is the result of a four-day virtual workshop involving experts selected by a 12-person Scientific Steering Committee set up by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - marking the first-ever collaboration between these two intergovernmental bodies.
The report notes that previous policies have tended to treat biodiversity loss and climate change separately, and that it is rather by addressing the synergies between mitigating biodiversity loss and climate change, while taking into account their social impacts, that benefits can be maximised and global development goals achieved.
"Man-made climate change is increasingly threatening nature and all that it brings to humanity, including its ability to help mitigate climate change. The warmer the world gets, the less nature can, in many regions, provide us with food, drinking water and other resources essential to our lives", said Professor Hans-Otto Pörtner, co-chair of the Scientific Steering Committee.
"Changes in biodiversity, in turn, have an effect on climate, with impacts on the nitrogen, carbon and water cycles," he said. "The facts are clear: a sustainable global future for people and nature is still achievable, but it requires profound change through rapid and far-reaching action of a kind never before attempted, underpinned by ambitious emissions reductions. Resolving some of the decisive and seemingly inevitable trade-offs between climate and biodiversity will involve a profound collective shift in individual and shared values about nature - such as moving from a view of economic progress based exclusively on GDP growth to one that balances human development with the multiple values of nature for a good quality of life, without overstepping biophysical and social limits".
The authors also warn that narrowly targeted actions to combat climate change can directly or indirectly harm nature and vice versa, but that there are many measures that can make significant positive contributions in both areas. Among the most important possible actions identified in the report :
Halt the loss and degradation of carbon-rich and species-rich ecosystems on land and in the ocean, in particular forests, wetlands, peatlands, grasslands and savannahs, coastal ecosystems such as mangroves, salt marshes, kelp forests and seagrass beds, as well as deep-sea and polar habitats. The report stresses that reducing deforestation and forest degradation can help reduce man-made greenhouse gas emissions by a wide range, from 0.4 to 5.8 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year.
Restore carbon-rich and species-rich ecosystems. The authors point out that restoration is one of the cheapest and quickest nature-based climate mitigation measures to implement. It provides essential habitat for plants and animals, strengthening the resilience of biodiversity in the face of climate change, along with many other benefits such as flood regulation, coastal protection, improved water quality, reduced soil erosion and pollination. Restoring ecosystems can also create jobs and income, particularly if the needs and access rights of indigenous peoples and local communities are taken into account.
Developing sustainable agricultural and forestry practices to improve the ability to adapt to climate change, enhance biodiversity, increase carbon storage and reduce emissions. These include measures such as crop and forest species diversification, agroforestry and agroecology. The report estimates that the joint improvement of cropland management and grazing systems, including soil conservation and reduced fertiliser use, offers an annual climate change mitigation potential of between 3 and 6 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.
Strengthen and better target conservation actions, coordinating them and supporting them with strong climate adaptation and innovation. This will involve significantly increasing the extent of protected areas, which currently represent around 15 % of land and 7.5 % of oceans, as well as their level of protection and effectiveness. Global estimates of the exact requirements for effectively protected areas to ensure a habitable climate, self-sustaining biodiversity and a good quality of life are not yet well established, but range between 30 and 50 % of all ocean and land surfaces. Options for improving the positive impacts of protected areas include increased resources, improved management and implementation, and better distribution with increased interconnectivity between these areas. Conservation measures beyond protected areas are also highlighted, including migration corridors and planning for climate change, as well as better integration of people with nature to ensure equitable access and use of nature's contributions to people.
Eliminating subsidies that support local and national activities that are harmful to biodiversity - such as deforestation, over-fertilisation and over-fishing - can also contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation, as well as changing individual consumption patterns, reducing wastage and waste, and changing diets, particularly in rich countries, in favour of more plant-based options.
Among the targeted climate change mitigation and adaptation measures identified by the report as being harmful to biodiversity and nature's contributions to people are:
The planting of monoculture bioenergy crops over a very large area of land. Such crops are damaging to ecosystems when deployed on a very large scale. They reduce nature's contribution to people and hamper the achievement of many sustainable development goals. On a small scale, alongside large and rapid reductions in fossil fuel emissions, bioenergy crops for electricity or fuel production can provide co-benefits for climate change adaptation and biodiversity.
Planting trees in previously non-forested ecosystems and reforestation with monocultures - particularly with exotic tree species. This practice can help mitigate climate change, but is often detrimental to biodiversity, food production and nature's other contributions to people. It has no obvious benefits for climate change adaptation and can displace local populations through competition for land.
Increasing irrigation capacity. This is a common response to adapt agricultural systems to drought, often leading to water conflicts, dam construction and long-term soil degradation due to salinisation.
All measures that are too narrowly focused on mitigating climate change should be assessed globally in terms of their respective benefits and risks, such as certain renewable energies that generate surges in mining activity or consume large amounts of land. The same applies to certain technical measures that are too narrowly focused on adaptation, such as the construction of dams and dykes. While there are significant opportunities for climate change mitigation and adaptation, these can have significant negative environmental and social impacts, such as interference with migratory species and habitat fragmentation. These impacts can be minimised, for example, by developing alternative batteries and long-life products, efficient recycling systems for mineral resources and approaches to mining that place sufficient emphasis on environmental and social sustainability.
The authors of the report stress that while nature offers effective ways of mitigating climate change, these solutions can only be effective if they are underpinned by ambitious reductions in all man-made greenhouse gas emissions. "The land and the ocean already do a lot - they absorb almost 50 % of CO2 from human emissions - but nature cannot do everything", said Ana María Hernández Salgar, Chair of IPBES. "In-depth change in all aspects of society and our economy is needed to stabilise our climate, halt the loss of biodiversity and pave the way for the sustainable future we want. To do this, we will also need to tackle the two crises together, in a complementary way".
Highlighting the importance of this co-sponsored workshop, Dr Hoesung Lee, Chairman of the IPCC, said: "Climate change and biodiversity loss combine to threaten society - often amplifying and accelerating each other. By focusing on the synergies and trade-offs between biodiversity protection and climate change mitigation and adaptation, this workshop has advanced the debate on how to maximise benefits for people and the planet. It also represented an important milestone in the collaboration between our two communities".
"It may be impossible to achieve win-win synergies, or even to manage the trade-offs between climate and biodiversity actions in every parcel of a landscape or seascape", said Professor Pörtner, "But achieving sustainable results becomes progressively easier if a combination of mixed actions is integrated on a larger spatial scale, through cross-border collaboration and joint consultative spatial planning, which is why it is also important to address the lack of effective governance arrangements and mechanisms to improve integration between climate change and biodiversity solutions".
The UK and Norwegian governments co-hosted the virtual workshop. "This is an absolutely critical year for nature and climate," said Lord Zac Goldsmith, UK Minister of State for the Pacific and the Environment. "With the UN Biodiversity Conference in Kunming, and the Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, UK, we have the opportunity and the responsibility to put the world on the road to recovery. This extremely valuable report from the IPBES and IPCC experts makes it clear that tackling biodiversity loss and climate change together is our best chance of doing so."
Sveinung Rotevatn, Norway's Minister for Climate and Environment, added: "Policies, efforts and actions to solve the global biodiversity and climate crises will only succeed if they are based on the best evidence and knowledge, which is why Norway welcomes this expert workshop report. It is clear that we cannot solve these threats in isolation - either we solve both, or we solve neither."
Paying tribute to the work of all the authors and expert reviewers, the Executive Secretary of IPBES, Dr Anne Larigauderie, also recalled the recent and tragic death of Professor Robert Scholes, co-chair of the workshop's Scientific Steering Committee, and his many contributions to the IPCC and IPBES.
It is important to note that the workshop report has not been submitted for review by governments participating in IPBES or IPCC, and that co-sponsorship of the workshop by IPBES and IPCC does not imply endorsement or approval of the workshop or its conclusions by IPBES or IPCC.