The climate crisis cannot be solved unless we protect biodiversity is the key message from a ministerial roundtable to discuss the importance, challenges, and opportunities in adopting a synergetic approach in the design and implementation of national climate and biodiversity plans and strategies, in support of achieving the goals of both the Paris Agreement and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, as well as the Sustainable Development Goals. Hosted by the UNFCCC COP28 and CBD COP15 Presidencies, governments and non-state actors will come together to launch an implementation agenda that takes forward ambitious and integrated nature and climate action for planet and people.

Climate change critically threatens biodiversity and ecosystems. At the same time, the loss and degradation of nature increases climate vulnerability, contributing to rising emissions and impeding sustainable development. As the first Global Stocktake makes clear, any path towards achieving the near- and long-term goals of the Paris Agreement or the 2030 goals and the targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework must include a synergetic approach to addressing climate change, biodiversity loss and land degradation in an ambitious and coherent manner.

At the inaugural NDC-NBSAP Ministerial, country-led partnerships and initiatives across climate, biodiversity, and land use action to exchange best practices and share opportunities to enhance collaboration, in order to support countries as they submit revised National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) in advance of CBD COP16 in 2024, and new Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) at COP30 in response to the Global Stocktake (GST) at COP28.

To achieve these goals, a Joint Statement affirms the commitment of endorsing countries to strengthen domestic and international collaboration across common objectives, laying out a framework for a ‘COP-to-COP’ agenda of collaboration among coalitions to support countries to implement complementary climate-nature action. The country-led partnerships and initiatives mobilized under this agenda include the NDC Partnership, the NBSAP Accelerator Partnership, the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People, the ENACT Partnership, the Nature Champions Network, the Mangrove Alliance for Climate, the Global Ocean Alliance, the Forest and Climate Leaders’ Partnership, the SIDS Coalition for Nature, the G20 Global Land Initiative, and the International Drought Resilience Alliance.

Spearheading the Joint Statement, the NBSAP Accelerator Partnership is a country-led initiative to support the development and implementation of ambitious NBSAP and collectively achieve the goals and targets of the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) and, ultimately, the global vision of living in harmony with nature by 2050. The NBSAP Accelerator Partnership will achieve this by promoting nature-climate action and providing coordination and facilitation support to countries and regions which strives to align the climate and biodiversity frameworks for action.

Following COP28, the NBSAP Accelerator Partnership together with other coalitions will meet regularly to collaborate on joint actions, and convene again in 2024 at CBD COP16 and COP29 under future COP Presidencies, towards COP30 in Belém in 2025.