The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) launched its Assessment Report on the Interlinkages Among Biodiversity, Water, Food and Health – known as the Nexus Report (December 2024). The summary report for policymakers is available here. The report identifies interconnections between these four ecosystem services and the effects of climate change. By improving understanding of these interconnections, the assessment aims to foster more synergistic and effective management across sectors and scales.
Human Level’s Take:
- As a global population, we are at a make-or-break moment in history. We are quickly changing the environment around us, leading to interconnected crises of biodiversity loss, water scarcity, food insecurity, impacts to health and climate change. Making forward, progress means we need to recognise the complexity of the systems around us — a change in one area could mean a multitude of cascading changes elsewhere. And delayed action increases the challenges and our resilience to address them, with the cost of addressing biodiversity loss potentially doubling over time.
- The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) believes that achieving positive outcomes across biodiversity, water, food, health, and climate is possible through integrated approaches focused on ecosystem conservation, sustainable resource use and climate mitigation, while ensuring equity and human rights, and addressing the needs of vulnerable populations.
- Economic and policy decisions that prioritise short-term gains over long-term sustainability exacerbate inequalities. By contrast, the most impactful approaches are those that involve transformative changes to our economic model: changing business models from extractive to regenerative; aligning incentives for nature protection through policy and market levers; and respecting human rights and ensuring equity of our shared resources. Companies and investors need to proactively push for these transformations if we’re going to make it to the other side of our global crisis point.
Some key takeaways:
- The important role of nexus interactions: The IPBES thematic assessment on the interlinkages between biodiversity, water, food, health and climate change highlights the complex and interconnected nature of global crises. It underscores the need for nexus approaches, which consider these interconnected challenges holistically, avoiding isolated decision-making that may lead to misalignments or unintended consequences. Biodiversity sits at the crux of these topics. Biodiversity is crucial for supporting water, food, health and climate stability. Yet it is rapidly declining worldwide due to direct drivers like unsustainable agriculture and aquaculture, leading to severe impacts on ecosystem functioning and human well-being. Indirect drivers of biodiversity loss like economic growth, overconsumption, and technological changes intensify these problems. Economic and policy decisions that prioritise short-term gains over long-term sustainability worsen inequalities, as they disproportionately affect vulnerable communities, including those in developing countries and marginalised groups. Efforts to strengthen environmental protection will not work without addressing the interconnected drivers of biodiversity loss, increasing equity and driving comprehensive reforms in economic and financial systems.
- We are at a make-or-break moment: If current trends in the drivers of biodiversity loss, water scarcity, food insecurity and health risks continue, they will lead to significant negative impacts on both the environment and human well-being, while worsening climate change. But focusing on these individual elements without considering their interconnections creates trade-offs and fails to address the broader system's needs. And interconnected action needs to happen fast: delayed action increases costs, with biodiversity loss alone potentially doubling in cost if addressed late. The report finds that achieving positive outcomes across all nexus elements is possible with integrated approaches that focus on ecosystem conservation, sustainable resource use and climate mitigation, while considering equity and the needs of vulnerable communities. Scenarios that prioritise synergies across these elements — such as sustainable land management, healthy diets, and inclusive economic growth with just distribution of benefits — offer the most promising pathways for meeting global policy goals like the Sustainable Development Goals.
- Transformative change is needed: There are numerous synergistic response options available for managing interconnected challenges. Key responses include conserving ecosystems, restoring natural habitats, reducing pollution and waste, integrating planning and governance, and ensuring equity and human rights. Some of the most impactful options involve changing business models and aligning incentives, which could lead to systemic shifts. Response actions can support and amplify the effectiveness of others, such as combining sustainable diets, reducing food waste and promoting ecological agriculture to reduce land conversion and pollution, benefiting biodiversity, health and climate outcomes. Likewise, protecting Indigenous food systems is inherently synergistic because they are often based on a holistic worldview. Yet current governance structures are often siloed, failing to address the interconnected nature of environmental and social challenges. There is also a significant gap in financing needed to meet biodiversity and sustainable development goals. This requires urgent changes in economic and financial systems, like adopting sustainable finance practices, adjusting fiscal and regulatory incentives and considering broader growth metrics beyond GDP. Achieving these transformations requires overcoming barriers such as systemic marginalisation and inequities, particularly for Indigenous Peoples, local communities and other vulnerable groups. Improving governance capacities, ensuring equitable access to financial resources and embracing just transitions are essential steps toward aligning economic systems with the needs of nature — and the resulting benefits to humans.
