Connecting Biodiversity and Climate Change

The Secretariat has produced a number of documents about biodiversity and climate change adaptation and mitigation in the context of UNFCCC deliberations. These are available below, including a summary of CBD events at UNFCCC COP15. This page also links to recent publications, including those by the CBD.

• Biodiversity and Climate Change Action
• Biodiversity, Gender and Climate Change
• Recent CBD scientific findings on biodiversity and climate change (including ecosystem-based adaptation, REDD and ocean acidification)
• Relevant Activities of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
• Biodiversity and Livelihoods: REDD Benefits - German Development Cooperation (GTZ) and CBD Secretariat guide
• Statements to UNFCCC SBSTA 31: item 3 Nairobi Work Programme; and item 5 REDD
• Press Release: Ocean Acidification from CO2 Emissions Causes Substantial Irreversible Damage to Ocean Ecosystems

CBD Secretariat Activities at UNFCCC COP 15

• Friday, 11 December
  Connecting Biodiversity and Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation: Presentation of the CBD Expert Group report (Technical Series 41), Friday, 11 December, Time: 1:00-2:30 pm, Room 3, Bella Center, Copenhagen, More »
  • Connecting Biodiversity and Climate Change: Key messages from the AHTEG report, presentation by Dr Guy Midgley, SANBI, South Africa
  • Convenient Solutions to an Inconvenient Truth: Ecosystem-based Approaches to Climate Change. Report by the World Bank discussing the role of ecosystem-based adaptation in development.
  • Promoting Biodiversity Co-Benefits in REDD - This OECD paper examines how biodiversity co-benefits in REDD can be enhanced, both at the design and implementation level.
  • Reports on relationship between carbon storage, biodiversity and ecosystem services - UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC)

• Sunday, 13 December
  Forest Biodiversity and Climate Change: Learning event in collaboration with UN-REDD Programme, GEF Secretariat and Conservation International at "Forest Day 3", on 13 December at the Radisson Falconer Hotel, Copenhagen. More »

Recent Publications on Climate Change and Biodiversity

• Connecting Biodiversity and Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation – Report of the Second Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group on Biodiversity and Climate Change (AHTEG). CBD Technical Series No. 41
• Key messages of the report from the AHTEG are available in UN languages. More »
• Review of the Literature on the Links between Biodiversity and Climate Change: Impacts, Adaptation and Mitigation. Prepared by the UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Centre for the AHTEG. CBD Technical Series No. 42
• Forest Resilience, Biodiversity, and Climate Change. A Synthesis of the Biodiversity/Resilience/Stability Relationship in Forest Ecosystems CBD Technical Series No. 43
• Scientific Synthesis of the Impacts of Ocean Acidification on Marine Biodiversity CBD Technical Series No. 46

• More CBD Technical Series »

Other Key Publications

• Natural Solutions - protected areas, helping people to cope with climate change.
• The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity Initiative – building the economic case for the conservation of ecosystems and biodiversity. A major international initiative to draw attention to the global economic benefits of biodiversity and to highlight the growing costs of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation. Recent reports include:
  • Climate Issue Update September 2009
  • Responding to the Value of Nature: Report for Policy Makers
  Other key TEEB documents, including drafts of reports are available here

• UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) - series of reports on climate change and biodiversity launched at the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference. These include:
  • Two summary reports on Tanzania and Jiangxi Province, China which provide detailed spatial analyses of the relationship between carbon storage, biodiversity and ecosystem services
  • Three posters outlining spatial analyses of the relationship between carbon storage, biodiversity and ecosystem services in Tanzania, Jiangxi Province, China and Honduras,
  • An updated global carbon map
  • A report reviewing the measures to promote co-benefits from REDD
  • Reviews of the recent scientific literature on climate change and biodiversity, CBD Technical Series 42; 2 page summary; full report