IPBES report highlights interconnected crises
Offers decision-makers range of options for action
The landmark assessment explores the interlinkages and interconnections between crises in biodiversity, water, food, health and climate change.
Environmental, social and economic crises, such as biodiversity loss, water and food insecurity, health risks and climate change, are all interconnected.
“They interact, cascade and compound each other in ways that make separate efforts to address them ineffective and counterproductive.”
This is according to a landmark report launched on Tuesday in Windhoek by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).
The IPBES Nexus Assessment, which explores the interlinkages and interconnections between crises in biodiversity, water, food, health and climate change, will offer decision-makers around the world the most ambitious scientific assessment ever undertaken on these complex interconnections.
Approved on Monday by the 11th session of the IPBES Plenary, which is composed of 147 representatives of IPBES member states, the report is the product of three years of work by 165 leading international experts from 57 countries from all regions of the world.
Complex challenges
The report notes that existing actions to address these critical challenges fail to tackle the complexity of interlinked problems and result in inconsistent governance.
The report warns that biodiversity is declining at every level, from global to local, and across every region.
Ongoing declines in nature, largely as a result of human activity, have direct and dire impacts on food security and nutrition, water quality and availability, health and wellbeing outcomes, resilience to climate change, and almost all of nature’s other contributions to people.
“The past two months have seen three separate major global negotiations – COP16 of both the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Convention to Combat Desertification, as well as COP29 of the Climate Convention. Together with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and SDGs, it is clear that the governments of the world are working harder than ever before to address the global challenges – grounded in the environmental crises – that confront us all,” said Dr David Obura, IPBES chair about the immediate relevance and value of the report.
Freshwater impact
Some of the key findings from the report note that the economic impacts of biodiversity loss are expected to affect developing countries more, where there are also higher barriers to mobilising sustainable financial flows.
It also states that climate change affects biodiversity, water, food and health through changes in average climatic conditions, as well as the frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events.
According to the report, intensifying climate change will stress water resources and undermine agricultural productivity and food productivity in food production systems, cause increased mortality from heat waves, and expand the epidemic belt for vector-borne diseases towards higher latitudes and altitudes.
“Exposure to risks from climate change is projected to double between the 1.5°C and 2°C global warming levels and double again between a 2°C and 3°C world, across multiple sectors," the report notes.
Moreover, freshwater biodiversity is being lost faster than terrestrial biodiversity.
“Unsustainable freshwater withdrawal, wetland degradation and forest loss have decreased water quality and climate change resilience in many areas of the world, impacting biodiversity, water and food availability with consequences for humans, plants and animals.”
The report also warns that many marine systems globally have been overharvested and degraded through human activities.
“They interact, cascade and compound each other in ways that make separate efforts to address them ineffective and counterproductive.”
This is according to a landmark report launched on Tuesday in Windhoek by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).
The IPBES Nexus Assessment, which explores the interlinkages and interconnections between crises in biodiversity, water, food, health and climate change, will offer decision-makers around the world the most ambitious scientific assessment ever undertaken on these complex interconnections.
Approved on Monday by the 11th session of the IPBES Plenary, which is composed of 147 representatives of IPBES member states, the report is the product of three years of work by 165 leading international experts from 57 countries from all regions of the world.
Complex challenges
The report notes that existing actions to address these critical challenges fail to tackle the complexity of interlinked problems and result in inconsistent governance.
The report warns that biodiversity is declining at every level, from global to local, and across every region.
Ongoing declines in nature, largely as a result of human activity, have direct and dire impacts on food security and nutrition, water quality and availability, health and wellbeing outcomes, resilience to climate change, and almost all of nature’s other contributions to people.
“The past two months have seen three separate major global negotiations – COP16 of both the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Convention to Combat Desertification, as well as COP29 of the Climate Convention. Together with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and SDGs, it is clear that the governments of the world are working harder than ever before to address the global challenges – grounded in the environmental crises – that confront us all,” said Dr David Obura, IPBES chair about the immediate relevance and value of the report.
Freshwater impact
Some of the key findings from the report note that the economic impacts of biodiversity loss are expected to affect developing countries more, where there are also higher barriers to mobilising sustainable financial flows.
It also states that climate change affects biodiversity, water, food and health through changes in average climatic conditions, as well as the frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events.
According to the report, intensifying climate change will stress water resources and undermine agricultural productivity and food productivity in food production systems, cause increased mortality from heat waves, and expand the epidemic belt for vector-borne diseases towards higher latitudes and altitudes.
“Exposure to risks from climate change is projected to double between the 1.5°C and 2°C global warming levels and double again between a 2°C and 3°C world, across multiple sectors," the report notes.
Moreover, freshwater biodiversity is being lost faster than terrestrial biodiversity.
“Unsustainable freshwater withdrawal, wetland degradation and forest loss have decreased water quality and climate change resilience in many areas of the world, impacting biodiversity, water and food availability with consequences for humans, plants and animals.”
The report also warns that many marine systems globally have been overharvested and degraded through human activities.
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