Biodiversity and Climate policy: WCMC report and policy brief on biodiversity and climate change

UNEP-WCMC has announced (June 2014) publication of a report on Using criteria to strengthen biodiversity considerations: Recommendations for the International Climate Initiative (IKI) and an accompanying policy brief Addressing climate change: Why biodiversity matters.  The key messages of the policy brief are:

• Climate change mitigation and adaptation can be supported by biodiversity conservation actions, enabling the permanence of mitigation and adaptation efforts.
• Biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation undermines the supply of ecosystem services vital for mitigation and adaptation.
• Adaptation and mitigation actions that do not consider the role of, and potential impacts on, biodiversity can have adverse consequences; therefore, such impacts must be assessed, and measures put in place to address them.
• Application of biodiversity criteria and safeguards to climate change interventions can enhance the benefits and minimise the risks for biodiversity without jeopardising mitigation or adaptation objectives.
• Multiple international agreements and national processes relevant to climate change and biodiversity should be implemented in ways that are coordinated, mutually supportive and enhance synergies.