Most nations lack sufficient detail and ambition in their plans for tackling the overlapping challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss in the decade ahead, and critical funding gaps further threaten suitable action being taken. This is particularly concerning given the current warming trajectory and lead time for ecosystem restoration, and the potentially irreparable damage that could occur through rising temperatures and ongoing land-use change activities such as deforestation.
Land use and GHG emissions are the most crucial aspects of climate and biodiversity plans. As the biggest land user and a significant contributor to global GHG emissions, currently food systems are fundamentally incompatible with climate change mitigation and biodiversity goals. Moreover, under current expectations, food-related land use and GHG emissions are both due to increase. Without a drastic shift in food systems, halting and reversing biodiversity loss and limiting temperature rises to 1.5°C will be unattainable.
Despite the essential role of food system transformation in meeting biodiversity and climate change mitigation goals, this is not currently a strategy proposed by any nation and it represents a major opportunity. The onus is on high-income nations – as significant land users, GHG emitters and contributors to the loss of biodiversity and carbon sinks – to lead the way by addressing their impacts at home and abroad. There are numerous ways to do this over the coming decade, including through revised NDCs at COP27 and committing to the GBF at COP15. However, efforts must be made to link the climate and biodiversity agendas, and to integrate food system transformation within this strategy.
Solutions must go beyond a technical linking of multilateral regimes. It is imperative to build resilient, diverse and highly functional ecosystems; to focus on food systems that sustain healthy human populations within Earth’s biogeophysical limits; and to keep global average temperatures below thresholds associated with ecosystem destabilization.
The previous decade of action for biodiversity and climate was far from successful – biodiversity loss continued and global temperatures increased. Another decade of inaction is unaffordable in the long term. Efforts this decade must be transformative and sufficiently ambitious. For example, moving away from a focus on conserving existing land use to protecting and restoring biodiverse habitats and carbon sinks. Protection and restoration are crucial.
While efforts to reduce impacts across the entire food system must be pursued, a huge and immediate shift is needed to address the burden of animal agriculture as reducing this offers the most substantial potential contribution to climate change mitigation and biodiversity goals. Food policy must move beyond merely tackling supply side impacts on a per unit basis and also reduce overall production levels.
The impacts of animal agriculture must be acknowledged and accounted for in climate and biodiversity policies. In addition to the ideas of peak fossil fuel and deforestation, the introduction of the concept of peak livestock production in the near term would signify strong intentions for action on biodiversity and climate.
While this paper focuses on the G7 to explore the climate change mitigation and biodiversity policy landscape and food system drivers in more detail, an international effort is required to align with global limits on temperature change and biodiversity loss. Also, the implications extend beyond the supply side – reconfiguring agricultural land use to align with biodiversity and climate change mitigation goals necessitates fundamental changes to food production and consumption. Building on existing international treaty architecture enabled by the Rio Conventions is likely the most expedient way to address the global challenge of biodiversity loss and climate change over the coming decade.
