Linking climate and biodiversity.

Abstract

Climate change and loss of biological diversity are global challenges, linked to each other and to other socioeconomic and environmental challenges. These interlinkages have been discussed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), valuable references for multilateral negotiations in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), whose Conference of the Parties (COP) convenes in November, and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), whose COP convened in October. In the past year, in recognition of common challenges and opportunities, the IPCC and IPBES formally collaborated for the first time. Decision-making processes around these complex issues will be more effective if they integrate responses to climate change, biodiversity loss, and human development gaps at various spatial scales: global, regional, national, and local.