Post-2020 biodiversity targets need to embrace climate change

Type Article
Date 2020-12
Language English
Author(s) Arneth AlmutORCID1, 2, Shin Yunne-JaiORCID3, Leadley Paul4, Rondinini Carlo5, Bukvareva ElenaORCID6, Kolb MelanieORCID7, Midgley Guy F.8, Oberdorff ThierryORCID9, Palomo IgnacioORCID10, 11, Saito OsamuORCID12
Affiliation(s) 1 : Atmospheric Environmental Research, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), 82467 Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany
2 : Geoecology and Geography, KIT, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
3 : Marine Biodiversity, Exploitation and Conservation (MARBEC), Université Montpellier, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER), CNRS, 34000 Montpellier, France
4 : Ecologie, Systématique et Evolution, Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, AgroParisTech, 91405 Orsay, France
5 : Department of Biology and Biotechnologies, Global Mammal Assessment Program, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy
6 : Ecosystem Services Projects Section, Biodiversity Conservation Center, 117312, Moscow, Russia
7 : Geographic Institute, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 04510 Mexico City, Mexico
8 : Global Change Biology Group, Botany and Zoology Department, University of Stellenbosch, 7600 Stellenbosch, South Africa
9 : Laboratoire Évolution et Diversité Biologique, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD 253), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS 5174), Université Paul Sabatier, 31062 Toulouse, France
10 : Laboratoire d’Ecologie Alpine, UMR 5553, CNRS-Université Grenoble Alpes, 38400 Grenoble, France
11 : Basque Centre for Climate Change, Parque Científico de Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, 48940 Leioa, Spain
12 : Natural Resources and Ecosystem Services Area, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), Kanagawa 240-0115, Japan
Source Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences Of The United States Of America (0027-8424) (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences), 2020-12 , Vol. 117 , N. 49 , P. 30882-30891
DOI 10.1073/pnas.2009584117
WOS© Times Cited 120
Keyword(s) biodiversity, ecosystem services, sustainability, policy
Abstract

Recent assessment reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) have highlighted the risks to humanity arising from the unsustainable use of natural resources. Thus far, land, freshwater, and ocean exploitation have been the chief causes of biodiversity loss. Climate change is projected to be a rapidly increasing additional driver for biodiversity loss. Since climate change and biodiversity loss impact human societies everywhere, bold solutions are required that integrate environmental and societal objectives. As yet, most existing international biodiversity targets have overlooked climate change impacts. At the same time, climate change mitigation measures themselves may harm biodiversity directly. The Convention on Biological Diversity’s post-2020 framework offers the important opportunity to address the interactions between climate change and biodiversity and revise biodiversity targets accordingly by better aligning these with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals. We identify the considerable number of existing and proposed post-2020 biodiversity targets that risk being severely compromised due to climate change, even if other barriers to their achievement were removed. Our analysis suggests that the next set of biodiversity targets explicitly addresses climate change-related risks since many aspirational goals will not be feasible under even lower-end projections of future warming. Adopting more flexible and dynamic approaches to conservation, rather than static goals, would allow us to respond flexibly to changes in habitats, genetic resources, species composition, and ecosystem functioning and leverage biodiversity’s capacity to contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation.

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Arneth Almut, Shin Yunne-Jai, Leadley Paul, Rondinini Carlo, Bukvareva Elena, Kolb Melanie, Midgley Guy F., Oberdorff Thierry, Palomo Ignacio, Saito Osamu (2020). Post-2020 biodiversity targets need to embrace climate change. Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences Of The United States Of America, 117(49), 30882-30891. Publisher's official version : https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2009584117 , Open Access version : https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00666/77773/