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Decision COP XIV/5

CBD/COP/DEC/14/5

Biodiversity and climate change

The Conference of the Parties,
Recognizing the critical role of biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services for human well being,
Recalling Article 2 of the Paris Agreement, 
Deeply concerned that failing to hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels would place many species and ecosystems with limited adaptive capacity as well as the people that depend on their functions and services, especially indigenous peoples and local communities and rural women, under very high risk,
Deeply concerned also that escalating destruction, degradation and fragmentation of ecosystems would reduce the capacity of ecosystems to store carbon and lead to increases in greenhouse gas emissions, reduce the resilience and stability of ecosystems, and make the climate change crisis ever more challenging,
Recognizing that climate change is a major and growing driver of biodiversity loss, and that biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services, significantly contribute to climate change adaptation, mitigation and disaster risk reduction,
Recognizing that, limiting the global average temperature increase to 1.5°C compared to 2°C above pre-industrial levels would reduce the negative impacts on biodiversity and on the people that depend on ecosystem functions and services, especially indigenous peoples and local communities and rural women, especially in the most vulnerable ecosystems, such as wetlands, small islands, and coastal, marine and Arctic ecosystems,
Informational
1.Adopts the voluntary guidelines for the design and effective implementation of ecosystem-based approaches to climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction, contained in the annex to the present decision;
Operational Parties Other Government(s) Relevant organizations
2.Encourages Parties, other Governments and relevant organizations, taking into account domestic priorities, circumstances and capabilities, to make use of the voluntary guidelines, in line with the ecosystem approach,  when designing and implementing ecosystem-based approaches to climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction, recognizing that this may also jointly contribute to climate change mitigation;
Operational Parties Other Government(s) Relevant organizations
3.Also encourages Parties, other Governments and relevant organizations, when undertaking the design, implementation and monitoring of ecosystem-based approaches to climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction:
Operational Parties Other Government(s) Relevant organizations
(a)To conduct such activities, recognizing that the effects of climate change are disproportionate, with the full and effective participation of indigenous peoples and local communities, women, youth and elders, appropriately recognizing and supporting the governance, management and conservation of the territories and areas of indigenous peoples and local communities, and, as appropriate, in coordination with the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform; 
Operational Parties Other Government(s) Relevant organizations
(b)To encourage activities at the local level led by indigenous peoples and local communities, including consideration and integration of indigenous and traditional knowledge, practices, plans and institutions; subject to the free, prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples and local communities, as appropriate, and consistent with national policies, regulations and national circumstances;
Operational Parties Other Government(s) Relevant organizations
(c)To ensure that the activities do not contribute to the drivers of biodiversity loss or ecosystem degradation, or negatively affect the indigenous peoples and local communities that depend on ecosystem functions and services;
Operational Parties Other Government(s) Relevant organizations
(d)To take into account transboundary approaches at the regional level;
Operational Parties Other Government(s) Relevant organizations
(e)To enhance synergies among different policies and implementation strategies;
Operational Parties Other Government(s) Relevant organizations
(f)To engage broadly with civil society organizations, the private sector and other key actors;
Operational Parties Relevant organizations Other Government(s)
(g)To encourage, where relevant, activities at the local level which support vulnerable groups, including women, youth and the elderly;
Operational Parties Other Government(s) Relevant organizations
(h)To strengthen protected area management effectiveness and conservation of natural ecosystems, including the biodiversity conservation approaches of indigenous peoples and local communities;
Operational Parties Other Government(s) Relevant organizations
(i)To consider the key messages outlined in annex I to the report of the workshop on “Biodiversity and climate change: integrated science for coherent policy”; 
Operational Parties Other Government(s) Relevant organizations
(j)To strengthen ecosystem integrity for the conservation of natural ecosystems;
Operational Active Parties
4.Encourages Parties, pursuant to decisions IX/16, X/33, XII/20, XIII/4 and XIII/5, to further strengthen their efforts:
Operational Parties
(a)To identify regions, ecosystems and components of biodiversity that are or will become vulnerable to climate change at a geographic scale and assess the current and future risks and impacts on biodiversity and biodiversity-based livelihoods, considering the use of biodiversity models and scenarios, as appropriate, while taking into account their important contribution to climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction;
Operational Active Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity
(b)To integrate climate change issues and related national priorities into national biodiversity strategies and action plans and to integrate biodiversity and ecosystem integrity considerations into national policies, strategies and plans on climate change, such as nationally determined contributions, as appropriate, and national climate change adaptation planning, in their capacity as national instruments for the prioritization of actions for mitigation and adaptation;
Operational Parties
(c)To promote ecosystem restoration and sustainable management post-restoration;
Operational Parties
(d)To take appropriate actions to address and reduce the negative impacts of climate change;
Operational Parties
(e)To enhance the positive and minimize the negative impacts of climate change mitigation and adaptation activities on ecosystem functions and services, biodiversity and biodiversity-based livelihoods;
Operational Parties
(f)To put in place systems and/or tools to monitor and assess the impacts of climate change on biodiversity and biodiversity-based livelihoods, in particular livelihoods of indigenous peoples and local communities, as well as to assess the effectiveness of ecosystem-based approaches for adaptation, and mitigation and disaster risk reduction;
Operational Parties
(g)To include information on the above in their reports to the Convention;
Operational Active Parties Other Government(s)
5.Also encourages Parties and other Governments:
Operational Parties Other Government(s)
(a)To foster a coherent, integrated and co-beneficial implementation of the actions under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Paris Agreement,  the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,  the Convention on Biological Diversity, including the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020  and the future post-2020 global biodiversity framework, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, and other relevant international frameworks, such as the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030,  where appropriate;
Operational Active Parties Other Government(s)
(b)To integrate ecosystem-based approaches when updating their nationally determined contributions, where appropriate, and pursuing domestic climate action under the Paris Agreement, taking into account the importance of ensuring the integrity and functionality of all ecosystems, including oceans, and the protection of biodiversity;
Operational Parties Other Government(s)
(c)To take into consideration, in the design of ecosystem-based adaptation tools and disaster risk reduction, the needs and strategic interests of vulnerable groups, such as women, the elderly, and indigenous peoples and local communities, among others;
Informational
6.Welcomes the assessment by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services on land degradation and restoration, and its regional assessments on biodiversity and ecosystem services, and endorses its key messages that support achieving the Sustainable Development Goals through the use of ecosystem-based approaches to climate change adaptation and mitigation, disaster risk reduction, and combating land degradation, clearly showing how the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and the Paris Agreement depend on the environment in all its diversity and complexity;
Operational Parties
7.Notes with concern the findings of the report entitled Global Warming of 1.5°C, an IPCC special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty,  and encourages Parties to take into account the key findings that support ecosystem-based approaches to climate change adaptation, mitigation and disaster risk reduction;
Operational Parties
8.Encourages Parties to collaborate on the conservation, restoration and wise/sustainable use of wetlands so that their importance, within the context of climate change and disaster risk reduction, is recognized, and to support the process towards developing a joint declaration of multilateral environmental agreements with respect to peatland conservation, restoration and wise use, thereby safeguarding the multiple benefits of peatlands, including restored peatlands, and contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals;
Operational Parties
9.Invites Parties to provide information on activities carried out to implement the “voluntary guidelines for the design and effective implementation of ecosystem-based approaches to climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction”, and the results produced, and to make this information available through the clearing-house mechanism and other relevant platforms;
Operational Relevant organizations
10.Invites organizations, including the Friends of Ecosystem-based Adaptation and the Partnership for Environment and Disaster Risk Reduction, and their respective members, to continue to support Parties in their efforts to promote ecosystem-based approaches to climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction and the approaches to climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction of indigenous peoples and local communities;
Operational Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity Parties Other Government(s) International organizations
11.Requests the Executive Secretary, subject to the availability of resources, and invites Parties, other Governments and international organizations in a position to do so, to support Parties in undertaking ecosystem-based approaches to climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction by making use, among other things, of the voluntary guidelines for the design and effective implementation of ecosystem-based approaches to climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction and by, among other things, at all relevant levels:
(a)Providing capacity-building and facilitating access to technology, when appropriate;
(b)Promoting awareness-raising;
(c)Supporting the use of tools, including community-based monitoring and information systems of indigenous peoples and local communities;
(d)Supporting, in particular, developing countries, especially least developed countries and small island developing States, taking into account the needs of countries that are most vulnerable to climate change;
(e) Supporting the development and implementation of pilot projects and upscaling existing projects;
Operational Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity
12.Requests the Executive Secretary, in collaboration with Parties, other Governments, the secretariats of relevant multilateral environmental agreements, and other organizations:
Operational Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity
(a)To update, the guidance, tools and information on initiatives available in the voluntary guidelines for the design and effective implementation of ecosystem-based approaches to climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction,  as necessary, and based on information provided by Parties in accordance with paragraph 9 above;
Operational Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity
(b)To compile case studies at national, regional and international levels on the implementation of ecosystem-based approaches to climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction;
Operational Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity
(c)To make the above available through the clearing-house mechanism;
Operational Active Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity
13.Also requests the Executive Secretary, in consultation with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and subject to the availability of resources:
Operational Active Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity
(a)To review new scientific and technical information including by taking into account traditional knowledge and the findings of Global Warming of 1.5°C, an IPCC special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty, with respect to:
(i)The impacts of climate change on biodiversity and on communities that depend on ecosystem services and functions, particularly indigenous peoples and local communities;
(ii)The role of ecosystems and their integrity, for climate change adaptation, mitigation and disaster risk reduction, and ecosystem restoration and sustainable land management;
Operational Implemented Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity
(b)To prepare a report on potential implications of the above for the work of the Convention for consideration by the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice at a meeting to be held prior to the fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties;
Operational Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity
(c)To develop targeted messaging on how biodiversity and ecosystem integrity, functions and services contribute to tackle the challenges of climate change;
Operational Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity
14.Further requests the Executive Secretary:
Operational Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity
(a)To consider the linkages and interdependencies between biodiversity and climate change in the preparation of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, informed by the reports and assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services without prejudice to the process for developing the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, and respecting the mandates of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change;
Operational Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity
(b)To liaise with the secretariats of relevant multilateral environmental agreements, including the relevant multilateral financial mechanisms, the Joint Liaison Group of the Rio Conventions and the Liaison Group of Biodiversity-related Conventions, to promote synergies and coordinate activities related to climate change adaptation, mitigation, and disaster risk reduction, such as the organization of back-to-back meetings and joint activities, where appropriate;
Operational Parties Other Government(s) Relevant organizations
15.Invites Parties, other Governments, funding organizations and relevant organizations, in a position to do so, to provide support for activities related to ecosystem-based approaches to climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction.