Adressing Climate Change: Why Biodiversity Matters

This policy brief discusses the potential negative effects of climate change mitigation programmes on biodiversity. It concludes biodiversity conservation can support climate change mitigation and adaptation goals if all potential impacts are weighed carefully in the policymaking process. Conserving biological diversity can also have the added effect of helping ensure the permanence of mitigation and adaptation benefits. The brief acknowledges that there may be trade-offs between biodiversity and climate change policies but argues these trade-offs can be minimized when mutual benefits are recognized and incorporated into policy design.