InterAcademy Partnership Statement on Biodiversity and Climate change: Interlinkages
Recently, the InterAcademy Partnership—the global network of science, engineering and medical academies— released a comprehensive synthesis and statement on climate change and biodiversity: Interlinkages and policy options highlighting how climate change and threat to life interlinked and how policymakers globally can address biodiversity decline and climate change in a coordinated way. The statement was presented at UN Convention on biodiversity COP15 in October 2021 and 26th UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26) in November 2021 as voice of world academies on the common challenges. Professor JIA Gensuo from CAS Institute of Atmospheric Physics serves as one of 16 working group members that performed synthesis and wrote the statement.
The statement recognizes that climate change and biodiversity decline are major challenges of our time, and that they are interlinked and coupled in the Earth system, with complex synergy and trade-off. Options for coordinated actions exist to address both challenges and benefit in both areas, helping to mitigate and adapt to climate change as well as conserve and restore biodiversity. Some coordinated policy options are recommended as: Protecting, restoring and expanding natural ecosystems; enhancing nature-based climate solutions with better ecosystem services; sustainable land management; climate and biodiversity friendly agricultural practice, coordinated climate and biodiversity actions from multiple sectors and transboundary joint efforts.
