Scientific outcome of the IPBES-IPCC co-sponsored workshop on biodiversity and climate change

PORTNER H. O.; SCHOLES R.; DÍAZ, SANDRA; ET AL.

IPBES Secretariat

Lugar: Bonn; Año: 2021 p. 253

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This workshop report is placed in the context of recent international agreements including the Paris Agreement, the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020 and on-going preparation for the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development that converge on solving the dual crises of climate change and biodiversity loss as essential to support human well-being. Simultaneously meeting these agreements relies on immediate and sustained efforts for transformative change which encompass technological and environmental policies as well as changes to economic structures and profound shifts in society. Climate change impacts and biodiversity loss are two of the most important challenges and risks for human societies; at the same time climate and biodiversity are intertwined through mechanistic links and feedbacks. Climate change exacerbates risks to biodiversity and natural and managed habitats; at the same time, natural and managed ecosystems and their biodiversity play a key role in the fluxes of greenhouse gases, as well as in supporting climate adaptation. The absorption of more than 50% of anthropogenic CO2 emissions through photosynthesis and consequent carbon storage in biomass and organic material, as well as through CO2 dissolution in ocean water, already reduces global climate change naturally (but causes ocean acidification). However, nature’s contributions to attenuating climate change, partly provided by the underpinning biodiversity, are at risk from ecosystem degradation resulting from progressive climate change and human activities. In fact, ecosystem degradation through land-use changes and other impacts on natural carbon stocks and sequestration is a major contributor to cumulative CO2 emissions, and, therefore, an additional driver of climate change. The ambitious implementation of land- and ocean-based actions to protect, sustainably manage and restore ecosystems have co-benefits for climate mitigation, climate adaptation and biodiversity objectives and can help to contain temperature rise within the limits envisaged by the Paris Agreement, provided that such actions support, and are not in lieu of, ambitious reductions of emissions from fossil fuels and land use change. In this broad context, the workshop explored diverse facets of the interaction between climate and biodiversity, from current trends to the role and implementation of nature-based solutions and the sustainable development of human society. A synopsis of the conclusions of the workshop is presented below: