Governing for Transformative Change across the Biodiversity-Climate-Society Nexus

• Published in: BioScience
• Main Authors: Pascual, Unai, McElwee, Pamela D., Diamond, Sarah E., Ngo, Hien T., Bai, Xuemei, Cheung, William W. L., Lim, Michelle, Steiner, Nadja, Agard, John, Donatti, Camila, I, Duarte, Carlos M., Leemans, Rik, Managi, Shunsuke, Pires, Aliny P. F., Reyes-Garcia, Victoria, Trisos, Christopher, Scholes, Robert J., Portner, Hans-Otto
• Other Authors: Red Sea Research Centre and with the Computational Bioscience Research Centre, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology , Thuwal, Saudi Arabia, Marine Science Program, Red Sea Research Center (RSRC), Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering (BESE) Division, Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), Development and Environment, University of Bern , Bern, Switzerland, Department of Human Ecology, Rutgers University , New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States, Department of Biology, Case Western Reserve University , Cleveland, Ohio, United States, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations , Rome, Italy, Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University , Canberra, Australia, University of British Columbia , Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Macquarie Law School, Macquarie University , Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Fisheries and Oceans Canada's Institute of Ocean Sciences , Sidney, British Columbia, Canada, Department of Life Sciences, University of the West Indies , St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago, Betty and Gordon Moore Center for Science, part of Conservation International , Arlington, Virginia, United States, Wageningen University and Research , Wageningen, The Netherlands, Urban Institute at Kyushu University , Fukuoka, Japan, Rio de Janeiro State University , Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona , Barcelona, Spain, Ecology, Environment, and Conservation, University of Cape Town , Cape Town, South Africa, University of the Witwatersrand , Johannesburg, South Africa, Alfred Wegener Institute , Bremerhaven, Germany
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Oxford University Press (OUP) 2022
• Subjects: Climate change; global biodiversity loss; transformative governance; society; IPBES; IPCC; Arctic; Estrada
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10754/679124; https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biac031

Transformative governance is key to addressing the global environmental crisis. We explore how transformative governance of complex biodiversity–climate–society interactions can be achieved, drawing on the first joint report between the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services to reflect on the current opportunities, barriers, and challenges for transformative governance. We identify principles for transformative governance under a biodiversity–climate–society nexus frame using four case studies: forest ecosystems, marine ecosystems, urban environments, and the Arctic. The principles are focused on creating conditions to build multifunctional interventions, integration, and innovation across scales; coalitions of support; equitable approaches; and positive social tipping dynamics. We posit that building on such transformative governance principles is not only possible but essential to effectively keep climate change within the desired 1.5 degrees Celsius global mean temperature increase, halt the ongoing accelerated decline of global biodiversity, and promote human well-being. We dedicate this article to Bob Scholes, whose knowledge, dedication and leadership contributed significantly to this manuscript, which builds from the IPBES–IPCC cosponsored workshop on biodiversity and climate change and the resulting workshop report (Pörtner et al. 2021). The views expressed in the present article, however, represent the individual views of the authors. We would like to thank the scientific steering committee of the IPBES–IPCC workshop, reviewers of the draft reports, both the IPBES and IPCC secretariats and technical support units. We are grateful to Anne Larigauderie, the executive secretary of IPBES, for her support throughout the process, and Yuka Otsuki Estrada for the visualization and development of the graphics. We would also like to thank three reviewers for their constructive comments. This work was supported by the ...