Unveiling Synergies: Biodiversity and the UN’s Climate Conference of 2023

With the global climate negotiations progressing, and countries now – for the first time ever! – being called on to transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems, the role of biodiversity in tackling the climate crisis is becoming more and more apparent.

Unprecedentedly, the most awaited final text of COP28, the Outcome of the first global stocktake, emphasised “the importance of conserving, protecting and restoring nature and ecosystems towards achieving the Paris Agreement temperature goal”. It also referred to the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM GBF), adopted at the UN Biodiversity Conference in December 2022. Looking at it from the bigger picture, it even re-creates a notional bridge between the biodiversity regime and the climate regime. This direct reconnection builds on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, both agreed on in Rio in 1992, but not very synergistic since then. However, with the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015 and the adoption of the KM GBF in 2022, these milestone texts can act as consensual reminders of where our societies should find themselves in 2050. Whereas the Paris Agreement focuses on mitigating climate change, building a climate-resilient world and aligning financial flows consistent with these two aims, the KM GBF endorses an ambitious pathway to reach “the global vision of a world living in harmony with nature by 2050”. The KM GBF’s key elements – 4 goals for 2050 and 23 targets for 2030 – also provide specific multi-thematic building blocks and a roadmap to reach the endorsed vision, making this so-called “Paris Agreement for biodiversity” up-to-date and instrumental in tackling the biodiversity crisis and climate crisis, if implemented.

Acknowledging in the global fora the fact that biodiversity loss and climate change are intertwined is key, but we also need to be more specific about their synergistic relationship. At the same time, vigilance is needed as various loopholes may lead to false solutions and trade-offs. With both crises accelerating and the windows for action rapidly closing, it is essential to invest in solutions that tackle both issues simultaneously and prevent those solutions that might unintentionally undermine the other cause. The good news is that the scientific community has been quite aware of these dynamics as win-win synergies, as well as trade-offs between climate and biodiversity, have been explored at the IPBES-IPCC Co-sponsored workshop on biodiversity and climate change.