Synergistic Solutions to Biodiversity Loss & Climate Change
To mitigate climate change, the world needs to achieve net-zero emissions as quickly as possible. This requires both reducing greenhouse gas emissions and enhancing carbon sequestration.
Land and ocean ecosystems are natural “carbon sinks”, absorbing more than half of all greenhouse gas emissions. Wild animals contribute significantly to natural carbon sequestration by maintaining these ecosystems. They are vital to the health, integrity, and functionality of these ecosystems, supporting processes like pollination, seed dispersal, and fertilisation that increase carbon storage and help mitigate climate change.
However, wildlife’s potential contribution to climate action is undermined by habitat loss that is driven to a significant extent by our current food systems. Protecting and restoring wildlife and their habitats, including by transforming food systems, is therefore a climate imperative.
At the policy level, the Global Stocktake of the Paris Agreement calls for countries to address climate change in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), considering biodiversity action agreed in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Integrating animal welfare when updating NDCs is a way for countries to feed two birds with one seed.
This inventory provides policymakers with actionable measures to tackle the interconnected challenges. By focusing on biodiversity protection and restoration, shifting consumption patterns, and transforming production practices, it offers a comprehensive toolkit for building integrated NDCs that safeguard both climate and nature–with animal welfare at the core.
