This “Scientific Outcome of the IPBES-IPCC co-sponsored the workshop on biodiversity and climate change”, was prepared by participants in the workshop in support of the “Workshop Report”. A well-functioning natural system and a habitable climate are the foundations of people’s good quality of life. Protecting biodiversity, avoiding dangerous climate change and promoting an acceptable and equitable quality of life for all is the mandate of several global initiatives, particularly the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Paris Agreement to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While each of these initiatives has specific goals, they also clearly state that the challenges of biodiversity decline, climate change and human well-being are closely connected, and a failure to jointly address the dual crises of climate change and biodiversity decline can compromise people’s good quality of life (IPBES, 2019). This co-sponsored IPBES-IPCC workshop report examines the fundamental intertwining of biodiversity and climate and its impacts on people’s quality of life (Figure 1.2) and makes a case for why climate policy and biodiversity policy must be considered jointly to meet the challenge of achieving a good quality of life (GQL) for all.
