Nexus Report: Interconnection among Global Crises

Context: The ‘Nexus Report’, has been recently published by Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). 

It examines the interlinkages among 5 major global challenges- climate change, biodiversity loss, food insecurity, water scarcity, health risks. Addressing these challenges separately is not only ineffective but also counterproductive. 

Role of IPBES

• Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is an international platform that deals with protection of biodiversity and natural ecosystems.
• IPBES periodically examines all existing scientific knowledge on biodiversity and nature to assess its current state.
• IPBES does not produce new science- it only evaluates existing knowledge to make assessments.
• IPBES informs several multilateral environmental processes- UN Convention on Biological Diversity, Convention on Combating Desertification, Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species and Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. 
• Information provided by the IPBES report is the basis for the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
  • This agreement set 23 targets to be met by 2030 to halt and reverse biodiversity loss’
  • This includes the ‘30 x 30 targets’ which aim to protect 30% of land, freshwater and marine ecosystems, and restore at least 30% of degraded ecosystems by 2030. 

Interconnected Global Crises: 

• The Nexus report says that five key crises—climate change, biodiversity loss, food insecurity, water scarcity, and health risks— are interconnected and amplify one another. For Example: 
  • Efforts to boost food production (a positive action to deal with hunger and malnutrition) often strain land and water resources, undermining biodiversity and exacerbating climate change. 
  • Initiatives to mitigate climate change through land-based carbon sequestration can reduce the availability of arable land, worsening food insecurity.
• Economic cost of damaging biodiversity: 
  • Biodiversity is declining at the rate of about 2-6% on an average every decade. More than half of global GDP (~58 trillion dollars) is moderately to highly dependent on nature.
  • Deterioration of natural ecosystems could directly hurt productivity and adversely impact economic output. 
  • The world's current economic direction negatively impacts all global challenges, causing an unaccounted cost of at least $10-25 trillion annually. 

Thus, it is important to adopt synergetic approaches that deliver benefits across the spectrum. Responses to the global challenges- climate change, biodiversity loss, food insecurity, water scarcity, health risks- need to be harmonised such that positive actions taken on any one of these does not result in negative impacts on others.

Key Recommendations in the Report:

• Restoration of carbon-rich ecosystems like forests, soils and mangroves can simultaneously address biodiversity loss, climate mitigation and food security.
• Effective management of biodiversity to reduce risks of diseases spreading from animals to humans.
• Reliance on Nature-based solutions and integrated landscape management. 
• Promotion of sustainable healthy diets and supporting Indigenous food systems.

Conclusion: The aim must be to find and implement actions that focus on sustainable production and consumption, while also conserving and restoring ecosystems, reducing pollution, and mitigating impacts of climate change.