Connecting the dots: Climate change and biodiversity interlinkages in Asia-Pacific

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About the online webinar

Title: Connecting the dots: Climate change and biodiversity interlinkages in Asia-Pacific, from science to policy and practice

Organizer: Asia Pacific Adaptation Network (APAN) 

Date: 22 September 2022, 14:00-15:30 hrs (ICT)

Background

As global greenhouse gases continue to increase, the Earth’s surface and lower atmosphere are warming. This rise in global temperature has devastating impacts on ecosystems, their biodiversity, and on communities depending on these ecosystems for their sustenance and livelihoods. Climate change is likely to become one of the most significant drivers of biodiversity loss by the end of the century. Furthermore, climate change is already forcing biodiversity to adapt either through shifting habitats, changing life cycles, or the development of new physical traits. These changes have cascading impacts on how humans live and how species will survive.

Climate change and biodiversity loss are intrinsically connected. The good news is, so are the solutions! Nature was at the forefront of the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP-26) and is expected to be a key topic at COP-27, taking place in Egypt in November 2022. 

The 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP-15) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) - to be held later this year - is expected to set biodiversity targets for 2030 and goals for 2050. Ideally, It should lead to the adoption of a robust and ambitious post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, sometimes called the ‘Paris Agreement for Nature.’ 

Achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda will require addressing biodiversity and climate change as part of a larger complex system. As such, there is a need to make better use of existing opportunities such as biodiversity and climate COPs to translate these interlinkages into policies and implementation. 

Objectives

Targeting climate change adaptation practitioners, the webinar aims at:

• enhancing adaptation practitioners’ knowledge and understanding of interlinkages between biodiversity and climate change;
• providing an overview of the different international conventions increasingly recognizing these links;
• highlighting the policy and finance gaps to increase synergies;
• discussing the variety of climate and biodiversity benefits offered by Nature-based solutions and more specific approaches to Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) and showcasing projects from the region.