The Thematic Assessment of the Interlinkages among Biodiversity, Water, Food and Health (Nexus Assessment) of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) addresses the complex and interconnected character of the crises and challenges of biodiversity loss, water availability and quality, food insecurity, health risks and climate change. It does so by providing a critical evaluation of evidence on interlinkages among five nexus elements: biodiversity, water, food, health and climate change. Although not mentioned in the title of the assessment, climate change has important and increasing, yet often overlooked, interactions with all nexus elements through climate change impacts and mitigation and adaptation actions. Climate change is a key direct driver of biodiversity loss and is thus considered one of the five nexus elements. While energy is not considered a nexus element, relevant aspects of energy systems are assessed where they have interlinkages with biodiversity, water, food, health and climate change adaptation and mitigation. Other systems, such as land, soil and air, are considered to be cross-cutting rather than stand-alone nexus elements.

This summary for policymakers is based on evidence from multiple knowledge systems. It assesses the state of knowledge on past, present and possible future trends in the interlinkages among the five nexus elements, focusing on biodiversity and on nature’s contributions to people.

It further assesses evidence regarding a diverse range of response options that address specific objectives, challenges or opportunities in the governance and management of these interactions among nexus elements (e.g., the influence of the elements on one another).

These response options and governance actions can be designed to facilitate coherent and coordinated decision-making that overcomes trade offs and enables synergies between biodiversity, water, food, health and climate change, while also supporting transformative change towards just and sustainable futures, in line with global policy goals and frameworks such as:

• The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals

• The Convention on Biological Diversity and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework

• The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement