The Climate Change ‐ Biodiversity nexus Seminar

Two key challenges over the coming decades are addressing climate change and biodiversity loss and often they are seen as two separate, but related issues, instead of two sides of the same coin and needing to be tackled together. The idea of the climate change – biodiversity nexus was brought to the fore at the European Commission conference in Athens on “Biodiversity Protection Beyond 2010”. One of the key statements in the Message from Athens 2009 was “We cannot halt biodiversity loss without addressing climate change, but it is equally impossible to tackle climate change without addressing biodiversity loss”. This talk will explore what lay behind this statement and provide examples of how addressing climate change through mitigation and adaptation in various sectors can have positive or negative effects on biodiversity. Those measures which provide elements of mitigation and adaptation and are beneficial for biodiversity are seen as triple win and represent potential cost effective means of addressing both climate change and biodiversity loss.