A Window of Opportunity for Climate Change and Biodiversity

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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. 

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.

Read more at York University

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