Minimize Impacts of Climate Change on Biodiversity and Build Resilience
Minimize the impact of climate change and ocean acidification on biodiversity and increase its resilience through mitigation, adaptation, and disaster risk reduction actions, including through nature-based solutions and/or ecosystem-based approaches, while minimizing negative and fostering positive impacts of climate action on biodiversity.
Why is this target important?
There are two parallel ‘COP’ conferences: a biannual COP for biodiversity and an annual COP for climate change. In case acronyms aren’t your thing, COP stands for Conference of the Parties, referring to the UN member nations. Awareness of these conferences grew with COP21, where the Paris Agreement was made. These gatherings are pivotal—they will determine our future.
So, the two conferences address separate issues, right?
Not so fast. The two challenges interact.
Earth has a fixed amount of carbon, stored across various reservoirs: the atmosphere, oceans, soils, rocks, and living organisms. Carbon is fundamental to all life. Look at a tree, and you’re looking at 50% carbon. Plankton? Carbon. Peat moss? Carbon. We, too, are carbon-based—nearly a fifth of our body weight is carbon. Every breath you take moves carbon around. All living things bind carbon, a process that has stabilized our climate for the past 12,000 years.
Carbon becomes CO₂ when it bonds with oxygen, allowing it to move through Earth’s systems. CO₂ itself isn’t the enemy; it’s essential to life. It only becomes problematic when we release too much of it, tipping the balance.
Biodiversity is the planet’s thermostat. When biodiversity declines, CO₂ levels rise, and so does the heat.
Restoring Earth’s balance is tricky. By burning fossil fuels, we increase CO₂ levels, damaging this natural “thermostat.” That’s why reducing stress on biodiversity is crucial. This is about more than saving species—it’s about sustaining a resilient system that regulates the climate we all depend on.
Climate change and biodiversity loss are inseparable challenges. So why have separate conferences? While fossil fuel burning is a central issue today, even a world powered by renewable energy (a term worth more scrutiny) could still wreak havoc on biodiversity. The real task here is to protect the conditions for life on our planet.
To safeguard biodiversity, we must confront climate change—and vice versa. They are not separate challenges, it’s one system, and that one system decides our whole future.