A joined-up approach to tackle interlinked crisis: a window of opportunity for climate change and biodiversity - ZSL

World leaders must take advantage of a pivotal window of opportunity for forging a much-needed joined-up approach to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss, say scientists from ZSL and York University. Without this, work on tackling either crisis could inadvertently harm progress on the other.

Published today (Tuesday 23 July) in the Journal of Applied Ecology, a paper from international conservation charity ZSL and researchers at York University, Toronto, titled ‘The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the Paris Agreement need a joint work programme for climate, nature, and people’ conceptualises how a joint work programme between the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) could be established.

Highlighting the issues the joint programme must tackle, and recommendations for successful implementation – the paper argues that such a unified political tool is critical to meet international commitments under both the Paris Agreement and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

Climate change and biodiversity loss are inherently interconnected; rapidly changing conditions drive the loss of species and the subsequent breakdown of ecosystems across the world – however healthy, functioning ecosystems are absolutely key to tackling climate change and mitigating its impacts.