Protecting biological diversity and climate isn’t always the same thing: making policy and plans to do both—the historic work of two international science organizations, from a biologist’s perspective

Sarah E. Diamond, an associate professor of biology at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, is available this week to discuss the June 10 environment/biodiversity report between the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)–the first ever collaboration between these international bodies. Diamond is a co-author on the report.

The combined IPCC-IPBES report will be released at 9 a.m. Thursday, June 10  (3 p.m. Central European Time). The two organizations issued a news release to members of the media. Contact [email protected] for information.

The workshop report itself presents the “peer-reviewed conclusions of 50 of the world’s leading biodiversity and climate experts, from all regions of the world, collaborating for the first time ever at this level,” according to the IPBES.

Diamond will be attending the virtual launch news conference and part of the panel discussion on June 10.

This is the first-ever collaboration between IPCC and IPBES. Thursday’s news conference follows a workshop in December 2020, which produced a high-level overview of the key messages from this collaborative effort and a Scientific Outcomes report which provides the details that support that  synopsis.

 “The goal of these documents are to describe and quantify the fundamental intertwining between biodiversity and climate,” Diamond said. “They are aimed at the level of policymakers and are intended to provide a guide for policy actions.”

For more about Sarah Diamond’s research work: https://www.diamond-lab.org/

To interview Diamond, contact Mike Scott, Case Western Reserve Media Relations:  [email protected]

Quotes from Sarah Diamond:

“Often policy actions in these areas (of biodiversity and climate change) are treated separately, but we argue that when they are treated together, we can better highlight mutually beneficial actions (such as the restoration of high-carbon storage ecosystems that benefits both climate and biodiversity goals) and avoid negative interactions (such as afforestation in already biodiverse areas that might aid in achieving carbon storage goals, but harm biodiversity).”

“Not only do we synthesize the latest available findings on these topics, we also consider how social factors feed into and flow out of biodiversity-climate interactions. Even co-beneficial biodiversity and climate goals can still have negative social outcomes if issues surrounding equity and good quality of life are not accounted for in policy decisions.”

“(In the report,) we highlight the potential consequences of exceeding limits and thresholds on biodiversity, climate, and social systems; for example, climate-induced ecological regime changes such as sea-ice ecosystems to open-water ecosystems that harm biodiversity and social well-being through an impacted food supply.”