An Lambrechts is a senior campaign strategist at Greenpeace International; Cyril Kormos is founder and executive director of Wild Heritage; and Virginia Young is director of the International Forests and Climate Programme at the Australian Rainforest Conservation Society.
Biodiversity and the climate are inextricably linked. As we lose or degrade ecosystems and their plants and animals, we release the carbon they have stored back into the atmosphere, accelerating climate change. And as climate change worsens, we lose even more biodiversity to heat, drought and fire.
On the other hand, protecting and restoring ecosystems so that they retain or recover their biodiversity is one of the most powerful tools we have to fight climate change.
Despite this, governments continue to address these interlinked crises in isolation, holding separate talks on the global climate and on biodiversity, despite a compelling body of scientific evidence that demonstrates an urgent need for collaborative and synergistic solutions.
This artificial split is especially odd as the UN climate and biodiversity conventions emerged together from the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. And there were very early calls for integrated work programmes.
To this day, it remains a huge, missed opportunity for holistic, integrated and mutually reinforcing solutions. It is also an opportunity we can’t afford to squander as both crises accelerate rapidly and approach tipping points that could be catastrophic for all of humanity.
COP16 confronts “huge” challenge of protecting 30% of world’s land and sea
Retaining and restoring the integrity of “high carbon” ecosystems like peatlands, mangroves, wetlands, forests and marshes, which store large amounts of carbon, is critical in our fight to limit warming to as close as possible to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
They are the most effective way to sequester carbon from the atmosphere. The higher their integrity, the greater their ability to safely store carbon over the long term. And biodiversity plays an important role in underpinning the integrity of ecosystems.
By protecting and restoring the natural composition and patterns of biodiversity in ecosystems, we not only preserve biodiversity, but also minimise the risk of losing the vast amounts of carbon stored in ecosystems to the atmosphere.
Shared solutions for twin crises
Protecting and restoring biodiversity is our best tool to help ecosystems adapt to the impacts of climate change we are already locked in to, and to mitigate the impact of climate disasters and adapt to our changing world.
Yet the pivotal role that high-biodiversity, high-carbon ecosystems play, including primary and old growth forests, is under-recognised in international fora, including – and notably – in the biodiversity and climate COPs.
The need to ensure synergies between biodiversity protection and climate action has come up at least a dozen times in meetings of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). But the core issue – the need to protect and restore ecosystem integrity in order to maximise synergies – has yet to be integrated into these discussions.
Colombia adds nature to the mix with its $40-billion energy transition plan
Thus, we still lack a proper basis to develop a joint, integrated framework between the two conventions, conversations remain siloed, and the critical importance of biodiversity and ecosystem integrity remains under-appreciated. Indeed, biodiversity is still far too often viewed as a useful, but largely non-essential “co-benefit” of climate action. This is a huge impediment to progress.
The most fundamental failure appears to be that neither Convention fully recognises that we cannot solve the climate crisis unless we solve the biodiversity crisis at the same time; and that keeping ecosystem carbon out of the atmosphere is dependent on doing two things simultaneously: reducing fossil fuel emissions, and reducing loss and damage to carbon-dense ecosystems and the biodiversity that underpins them.
Protecting ecosystem “integrity”
National-level CBD or biodiversity focal points often do not collaborate with their climate counterparts while many climate negotiators fail to recognise the risk that some “climate solutions” pose to biodiversity, including large-scale afforestation projects, bioenergy projects and the construction of dams and renewable energy projects in protected areas and other irrecoverable natural areas.
At the global level, parties at the UNFCCC still fail to account for the importance of protecting and restoring carbon stocks within the Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) rules, even as state parties are allowed to offset fossil fuel emissions through forestry-based carbon offsets.
This problematic interpretation of “net zero” comes in part from the absence of ecosystem integrity as a measure. A joint work programme should establish the grounds for concomitant approaches like ecosystem integrity, which would distinguish the superior carbon storage attributes of high-integrity ecosystems like primary and old-growth forests.
Recognising which types of ecosystems are effective in storing carbon safely for the long term would be a major step forward in ensuring effective management of natural carbon sinks. COP28’s global stocktake was successful in mentioning “ecosystem integrity”, but concrete action to take a more holistic approach and include it as a central starting point for nature-climate action is still missing.
Joint work programme needed
Currently, the CBD is a few steps ahead of the UNFCCC in the synergies debate. At a biodiversity meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, in May, delegates called for greater collaboration between the biodiversity and climate COPs, including a joint work programme between the conventions to harmonise biodiversity and climate actions.
This could encompass direct changes to how governments design their contributions to meeting the goals and targets of both the biodiversity and climate COPs, and avoid negative trade-offs between Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the UNFCCC and National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) to the CBD.
Biodiversity finance grew ahead of COP16 but came mostly as loans, says OECD
At the biodiversity COP16 in Colombia this month and the COP29 UN climate summit in November, governments should include a call for such a work programme, which would provide the space and time for it to be operationalised in 2025 at COP30 in Brazil.
Synergistic climate-biodiversity approaches centered on ecosystem integrity and primary ecosystems can also help unlock innovative and scaled up finance for protecting and restoring ecosystems in large landscapes while supporting Indigenous peoples and communities.
When rivers dry up in the Amazon and we see flooding in the Sahara and Saudi Arabia it should be obvious that we are fast running out of time. The scientific case for integrated solutions that maximise both biodiversity and climate mitigation benefits is clear and strong. Now we need decision-makers to act.
The post It’s time to pull down the UN’s artificial divide between biodiversity and climate appeared first on Climate Home News.
It’s time to end the UN’s artificial divide between biodiversity and climate
Climate Change
Large flotilla brings Pacific voices and message to leaders at Pre-COP meeting: Keep 1.5C Alive
NADI, FIJI Wednesday 7 October 2026 — Around 80 people including Pacific and Torres Strait community members, Elders and youth activists travelled as part of a colourful flotilla past the Pre-COP venues with a message for leaders: ‘Keep 1.5°C Alive’.
High res footage and images available here
The large flotilla included traditional Fijian voyaging vessel the Uto Ni Yalo, six 6-person outrigger canoes, and Greenpeace campaigning vessel the Oceania which sailed from Sydney to the Pre-COP in Nadi. On board were Elders, climate-vulnerable communities members from across the Pacific and Torres Strait, youth activists and poets, and campaigners and climate experts from across the region.
Messaging on canoes and banners said ‘Hold the Line at 1.5°C’ and ‘Keep 1.5°C Alive’ — a reminder to leaders that the climate limit established under the Paris Agreement is a non-negotiable survival line.
Shiva Gounden, Head of Pacific at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said: “People from across the Pacific and Australia have come together today to make sure the voices of our communities are heard by leaders meeting here in Nadi for the Pre-COP climate talks. The Taku Pakasoa Declaration adopted here at Pre-COP means ‘Strength in Unity’, and that’s how we’re coming together today.
“Our message is clear: Hold the Line on 1.5°C and centre those most impacted by the climate crisis in your decision-making. Our children’s futures must not be stolen away so that polluting nations can continue down the fossil-fuel path.
“Limiting global heating to 1.5°C is a non-negotiable survival line for Pacific communities and for humanity. Every cyclone, every storm now blows with the deadly force of accumulated emissions and gives a warning of what is to come as we face a dangerous summer of climate-fuelled extreme weather. Do not ignore our voices.”
On board, Aigagalefili Fepulea’i-Tapua’i, Pacific youth climate advocate and poet from Aotearoa Climate Action Network, said: “To hold the line on 1.5C for our Pacific family, New Zealand, as the only country where the connection between environmental protection and indigenous rights is legally validated by our constitutional document, must protect the rights of Māori.”
ENDS
Media contact: Kate O’Callaghan in Nadi on +61 406 231 892 (Whatsapp/Signal)
Large flotilla brings Pacific voices and message to leaders at Pre-COP meeting: Keep 1.5C Alive
Climate Change
A ‘victory’ for communities as High Court rules climate impacts from coal and gas must be considered even where fossil fuels are exported
SYDNEY, Wednesday 7 October 2026 — In response to the landmark High Court ruling that climate impacts of fossil fuel projects must be considered by NSW planning authorities, the following lines can be attributed to Joe Rafalowicz, Head of Climate and Energy at Greenpeace Australia Pacific
“The High Court decision today is a victory for communities that bear the brunt of the storms, bushfires and extreme weather fuelled by Australian fossil fuel corporations.
“Coal and gas companies have claimed they are not responsible for their pollution because it happens overseas, but today Australia’s highest court sided with common sense and scientific evidence to find that every new coal and gas approval in this country could put us at risk, no matter where it is sold or burnt.
“As leaders meet at the Pre-COP talks in Fiji this week, Pacific communities are reaffirming the importance of the 1.5C temperature limit as a survival line for humanity, and is a scientific, moral and legal obligation as affirmed by the landmark Pacific-led ICJ Advisory Opinion. The highest court in the world, and now in Australia, have been clear: it is legally imperative that all of the pollution from fossil fuel projects be considered before approving a new project.
“Now is the moment for the Australian Government, as COP31 President of Negotiations, to find the courage, leadership and grit our country is known for to chart a new course away from fossil fuels. This begins with showing leadership at home by ending new coal and gas approvals.”
-ENDS-
After witnessing the effects of sea-level rise in the low-lying island nation of Tuvalu, Pacific leaders on Tuesday used the pre-COP31 summit in Fiji to voice their frustration at the difficulties they have experienced in tapping the global climate finance system.
A small group of government leaders, climate negotiators and heads of development banks and climate funds took a trip to Tuvalu’s Funafuti atoll on Tuesday morning, travelling by road over land just 10-20 metres wide to visit a project that is building barriers to keep the sea from the land.
They then flew to Fiji for the pre-COP summit, where several Pacific leaders said they had been let down by the insufficient quantity, bad terms and slow speed of international finance to help them adapt to a warming climate that is bringing higher oceans, drought and more powerful storms to their shores.
“Right now, our islands are like a canoe that has been rammed by a massive foreign ship. Our canoe is taking on water, we are sinking, and what is the world’s response?” asked Palau’s President Surangel Whipps Jr.
“They hand us a tiny patch to cover a gaping hole,” he continued, “but the bureaucratic process just to receive that patch is so slow that the water fills the hole while we wait. Then to rebuild the vessel so that we can survive the next storm, we are offered loans, debt that adds weight to a sinking boat packaged in red tape so thick we can barely access it. And while we wait, the water continues to fill.”
Pacific leaders and Australia called again on governments to invest in the new Pacific Resilience Facility (PRF), which has been designed by the Pacific Islands Forum and is seeking $500 million in investments by COP31 in November.
It has around $180 million so far, but did not receive additional pledges during the UN General Assembly in New York. The PRF aims to invest to generate annual returns which it can give to projects like water tanks for drought-hit communities.
Witnessing sea level rise
The annual pre-COP gathering is usually a low-profile technical meeting of climate negotiators. But this year, Australia – which is the president of negotiations at COP31 – partnered with the Pacific to introduce a “leaders segment” in an attempt to shine a spotlight on climate issues affecting the region.
Fourteen government leaders – from Australia, Timor-Leste, Mauritius and the Pacific – made the trip. They were joined by the European Union’s climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra, the heads of the Green Climate Fund and the Asian Development Bank and former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard.
On their return to Fiji, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Matthew Wale told the pre-COP leaders roundtable that the sea level rise they had witnessed was personal for him.
“Tuvalu was not just a site visit for me. I saw the story of my own saltwater people,” he said, adding that he, his daughter and his grandfather had lost their houses to sea level rise and that three-quarters of his electorate live on land that will be underwater in the next 30 years.
From the other side of the world, Antigua and Barbuda’s environment minister Michael Joseph said Tuvalu’s problems felt similar to those of his own Caribbean islands. “I saw vulnerable communities… just metres from the sea and people determined to remain on their land, preserve their culture and way of life,” he said.
A group of Fijian schoolchildren told the leaders it was not just sea level rise the Pacific struggles with but also heatwaves, droughts and storms, which worry their families and prevent them from learning.
Climate finance red-tape
Several Pacific leaders criticised the world’s leaders for not doing enough to combat climate change. Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown expressed disappointment that only two non-Pacific leaders had come to the pre-COP, a fact Australian media widely picked up on to label the event a flop and question its A$20 million (US$14m) price tag.
“We’ve heard a lot of numbers these last two days,” Brown said. “Let me share one of my own. More than 50 invitations extended to world leaders… to see for themselves what high emissions are doing to our nations and our ocean – an ocean that covers nearly one-third of the Earth’s surface.”
-
Pacific islands seek backing for new regional fund ahead of COP31
Pacific leaders will appeal for pledges to a new regional fund designed to swiftly channel climate finance to local communities -
The Pacific made history in the courts – now we must do it in the negotiations
Legal clarity alone will not lead to reduced emissions, more finance or stronger national climate plans – political will is key to meeting states’ obligations -
Civil servants warn fossil fuel exploration could harm New Zealand’s climate reputation
Advice to politicians says revoking a ban on oil and gas drilling could damage relations with Pacific neighbours and risk lawsuits
He called for more climate finance for the Pacific, asking “if the world is prepared to assess our suitability for climate finance, why is it not equally prepared to scrutinise whether those responsible for delivering it are meeting their obligations?”
Like Palau’s president Whipps, Naoero’s President David Adeang criticised the red tape that is hindering access to climate finance as well as a lack of money, complaining especially about “complicated procedures, heavy reporting, delays in approval and disbursement”.
Adeang added that “the way we assess vulnerability matters”, adding that it should be measured by more than income. Naoero, for example, is classified by the World Bank as high-income, restricting which climate finance it is eligible for.
Action plan to improve access
On Thursday, the Australian government will present a statement and action plan on improving access to climate finance for small island developing states and least developed countries, which it is asking other countries and organisations to endorse.
The statement addresses some of these Pacific complaints as well as acknowledging that progress has already been made on simplifying access by multilateral development banks and climate funds.
In Fiji, Asian Development Bank head Masato Kanda said his institution is “tailoring our finance and operations to island realities” because “your children and their children should be able to grow old in the countries their ancestors have called home for millennia”.
The executive director of the Green Climate Fund (GCF), Mafalda Duarte, said that the GCF-backed coastal adaptation project leaders visited in Tuvalu shows that “climate finance works” although – as the project took eight years to implement – “it takes time, and therefore we have no time to waste”.
Australia calls for optimism
While Pacific leaders expressed concern that the world is set to blast past its agreed 1.5C warming limit, endangering their nations, Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called for “optimism”. “If people think there is no hope, then they will not strive to get the change that we need,” he said.
He said that when he attended his first COP in 2005, Australia’s renewable energy target was 2%. Its target is now 82% renewable electricity by 2030.
While Albanese promoted Australia’s success at electrifying homes and businesses and rolling out renewables, he has been criticised by climate campaigners for extending the production of fossil fuels, including coal – largely for export.
France’s Minister for Ecological Transition Monique Barbut defended the European Union’s climate action at the pre-COP meeting. She said the continent was heating up and reducing emissions faster and providing more climate finance than anywhere else in the world.
“It is time for all major emitters to step up and do their fair share” on climate finance, she said. Most developing countries with large emissions have fiercely resisted joining the club of climate finance donors, arguing they have played a disproportionately small historic role in causing climate change.
Barbut, as well as Palau’s president Whipps, called for the next flagship scientific assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to be finished by COP33 in 2028, in time to inform the next global stocktake of national climate action.
This timeline has been opposed by countries like India, Saudi Arabia and China, who argue it would put an unfair burden on developing countries. Barbut said countries should “support the work of the IPCC rather than sabotage its calendar”.
Barbut said that governments should agree at COP31 to aim to raise the share of “clean electricity” in final energy consumption to 35% by 2035. The Turkish and Australian governments have pushed for this goal although without specifying that the electricity should be “clean”. Barbut added that COP31 should also agree to cut emissions of methane, a particularly potent greenhouse gas.
The post Pacific leaders rail at climate finance failures after pre-COP trip to Tuvalu appeared first on Climate Home News.
Pacific leaders rail at climate finance failures after pre-COP trip to Tuvalu