July 23, 2024
Forging of joined-up approach at COP29 and COP16 vital for urgent action for climate and nature
TORONTO, July 23, 2024 – 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 York University and ZSL. Without this, work on tackling either crisis could inadvertently harm progress on the other.
Published today in the Journal of Applied Ecology, a paper from international conservation charity ZSL and researchers at York University, Toronto, “The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the Paris Agreement need a joint work programme for climate, nature, and people,” conceptualizes how a joint work program 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 program 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.
“The world is currently at a crossroads. World leaders have signed international treaties that commit them to take action to address these two crises, but there is currently a massive gap in the tools available to ensure this action is unified,” says Professor Idil Boran of York University’s Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies.
Boranand Professor Nathalie Pettorelli, a researcher at ZSL’s Institute of Zoology who has long been calling for united solutions to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss, are co-authors of the paper.
“We urgently need a global approach that addresses the nature and climate crises together – because they are intrinsically connected,” says Pettorelli. “The UNFCCC and CBD are incredible platforms for providing the evidence to, and guiding the way through the changes we need, but higher levels of integration between the biodiversity and climate change agendas are needed to plug implementation gaps.
“The upcoming Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC and CBD present a clear policy window for the two conventions to introduce a formal governance structure that brings together ideas, people, organizations and processes necessary for joining the dots on how to both stabilize our climate and recover our nature.”
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Source: News@York
Read the full press release here.