The Intertwined Crises of Climate Change and Biodiversity, a Call for Integrated Action
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Loading... - Ryan Griffin
- 20 Nov 2024
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The climate and biodiversity crises are two of the most pressing challenges facing our planet today, yet they have often evolved in isolation from one another. This separation is evident in the parallel structures of international summits dedicated to each issue, such as the recent UN biodiversity summit (COP16) in Colombia and the ongoing climate summit (COP29) in Azerbaijan. Compounding the confusion, there is also a summit on desertification in Saudi Arabia, also labeled COP16. This overlapping nomenclature highlights the urgent need for a cohesive approach to address these intertwined crises.
The Importance of Ecosystem Health
Healthy ecosystems are vital for climate resilience, while a stable climate is essential for protecting biodiversity. For instance, Brazil has the potential to meet nearly 80% of its net-zero emissions pledge by halting deforestation and restoring native vegetation. This dual approach not only preserves vast amounts of carbon but also safeguards a significant portion of the planet’s biodiversity.
Political momentum is building for a more integrated approach. At the recent biodiversity summit, leaders emphasized the necessity of aligning national climate targets with biodiversity goals. This sentiment is echoed in initiatives like the Rio Trio, where the heads of the UN’s conventions on climate change, biodiversity, and desertification committed to unified action.
Latin America's Leadership
Latin America is emerging as a leader in promoting synergies between biodiversity and climate action. The region is home to a significant portion of the world’s biodiversity and land-based carbon. Over 70 global leaders have called on Colombian President Gustavo Petro and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to spearhead efforts on climate, nature, and food security. Brazil’s renewed commitment to restore 12 million hectares of native ecosystems by 2030 is a promising step in this direction.
Missed Opportunities at the Biodiversity Summit
Despite these encouraging developments, the biodiversity summit revealed troubling gaps between climate and biodiversity policies. Notably, key language addressing the need to transition away from fossil fuels and warning about the dangers of bioenergy was removed from the summit’s final text. Bioenergy, which involves cultivating plants for high biomass yield, poses significant risks to biodiversity, particularly when large-scale plantations replace natural forests and subsistence farmland.
The removal of a paragraph that highlighted these risks is concerning, especially as many net-zero strategies rely on extensive land use for carbon dioxide removal. This often translates to creating monoculture plantations or growing bioenergy crops, which can threaten food and water security and intensify social conflicts.
The Risks of Bioenergy
The reliance on bioenergy raises serious concerns. A recent study indicated that global net-zero commitments could require around 990 million hectares of land for carbon removal by 2060—an area nearly the size of the United States and equivalent to two-thirds of the world’s cropland. This demand poses significant risks to biodiversity and food security, particularly in regions where land is scarce.
Lower-income nations, especially in Africa, have pledged disproportionately large land areas for carbon removal, often benefiting high-emitting industrialized nations. This raises ethical concerns about land appropriation and food insecurity, with some pledges exceeding a country’s total land area, highlighting unrealistic goals.
Moreover, the lifecycle assessment of bioenergy often reveals unclear advantages over fossil fuels. Monocultures are particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts, such as droughts, further complicating the narrative around bioenergy as a sustainable solution.
A Call for Integrated Solutions
The scientific consensus is clear: we cannot effectively address climate change by industrializing the biosphere. Solutions must prioritize ecosystem integrity and support biodiversity rather than compromising them for carbon gains. This requires stronger coordination between the UN’s climate, biodiversity, and desertification conventions, as well as more inclusive governance structures that amplify the voices of Indigenous peoples, who steward large areas of the world’s biodiversity and carbon.
The establishment of a new permanent subsidiary body at the recent biodiversity summit to ensure the “full and effective participation” of Indigenous peoples is a significant step forward.
As we look ahead to COP29 in Azerbaijan and COP30 in Brazil, there is hope that Latin American countries will continue to lead the way in promoting integrated climate-biodiversity action. In our urgent race to cool the planet, we must ensure that we do not compromise the health of the biosphere upon which we all depend. The time for integrated action is now; the future of our planet hinges on it.
