UNEP calls for joint approaches to combat climate change

Nairobi, Nov 14 (IANS): The UN Environment Program (UNEP) has called for integrated approaches to help save nature and combat climate change.

In a report released in Nairobi on Friday, the UNEP said that climate change and biodiversity loss are twin crises that should be tackled together, with ambition and integrated action, reports Xinhua news agency.

The report shows that coordinating priority areas to conserve both biodiversity and carbon stocks is key to meeting ambitious goals for both nature and climate.

Co-authored by the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), the report highlights areas where global conservation action can deliver the most to achieve biodiversity goals and mitigate climate change.

“There is no climate solution without the full contribution from nature. As the UNEP-WCMC report and the work of UN-REDD show, if we are able to realize the full contribution of nature to climate change mitigation, we will have also achieved the goal of biodiversity conservation,” said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP.

The study shows that when prioritizing areas for conservation, accounting for biodiversity and carbon together can secure 95 per cent of the biodiversity benefits and nearly 80 per cent of the carbon stocks that could be obtained by prioritizing either value alone.

It finds that conserving 30 percent of land in strategic locations could safeguard 500 gigatonnes of carbon stored in vegetation and soil and reduce the extinction risk of nearly nine out of 10 threatened terrestrial species.

“This analysis highlights locations across the world where conserving land can best help to both keep carbon stocks safely stored away and boost protection for threatened species,” said Valerie Kapos, one of the report’s authors and the head of Climate Change and Biodiversity at UNEP-WCMC.

The findings reveal that greater ambition and action are needed to bend the curve of biodiversity loss and greenhouse gas emissions.