Discussion Highlights: Chair and Students’ Roundtable #1

“Biodiversity and climate are two sides of the same coin! We have been saying that for many years now and yet we are still treating them separately.” Julia Marton-Lefèvre

The first Chair and Students’ Roundtable was held on October 6^th. It was a virtual event. The topic was “Impacts of Climate Change and Policies on Biodiversity”. We were delighted to welcome Julia Marton-Lefèvre (Chair, Board of the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT/ Former IUCN Director General) as our guest expert.

Participants of the Roundtable were PSIA students Augustin Bourleaud, Chiara Feldberger, Giulia Galli, Antoine Richet, Samantha Youngeun Shin, with Julia Marton-Lefèvre, Alejandra Guraieb (Research Assistant to the Chair) and Shiv Someshwar (Chairholder)

Discussion Highlights:

• We are running out of time. The climate and biodiversity crises require concrete action; the time for talk has passed. Good intentions are insufficient.
• We need to address the issue that some processes (e.g., legal and international negotiations) take too long, and many pledges are voluntary and are not binding.
• The media tends to focus more on climate than biodiversity. Biodiversity is hard to measure because it is much more local. But these two crises are deeply intertwined and that should be addressed together.
• The three elements of sustainability (social, economic and environmental) need to be further linked, for example in food systems.
• Efforts to promote inclusivity must be strengthened. Young people should be really listened to.
• We all depend on nature, but we are not all equal in our relationship with nature (e.g., some people might be more directly affected by biodiversity deterioration).
• It is important to reflect on the effects of climate change policies on biodiversity. Attention must be paid to climate policies that address climate change while also addressing biodiversity loss.
• Nature-based solutions present a good opportunity to address both climate and the biodiversity crises. Mangroves, for example, provide climate and ecosystem services as well as economic livelihoods.
• We urgently need to improve institutional arrangements, increase involvement of local authorities, develop strong environmental legal frameworks, find ways to further empower citizens, and eliminate harmful subsidies while continuing to push for change of behavior.
• Education is a crucial tool to advance climate action and protection of nature.
• GDP was a great invention, but it has outlived its time. It should not be the sole measure of success.
• It is important to not only talk about the cost of climate policies, but also of the cost of not investing in mitigating and adapting to climate change.
• Local solutions are very important, but local solutions by themselves aren’t sufficient to deal with larger scale changes (ozone depletion and ocean acidification, for example).  
• We need to recognize the trade-offs and find ways to support the most vulnerable in the transition. Since nature does not have voice, we must include interests of nature in the “most vulnerable” category. ‘Just Transition’ must include a biocentric view.