Treat biodiversity and climate issues as a single challenge: Report

Current approaches to tackling these crises seen as fragmented, leading to inefficiencies

NEW YORK - Sometimes, human needs can make problems like climate change and biodiversity collapse seem insurmountable. The world still relies on fossil fuels that are heating the planet. People need to eat, but agriculture is a top driver of biodiversity loss.

But what if we are looking at those problems the wrong way? What if we tackled them as a whole, instead of individually?

A landmark assessment, commissioned by 147 countries and made public on Dec 17, offers the most comprehensive answer to date, examining the sometimes dizzying interconnections between biodiversity, climate change, food, water and health.

"Our current approaches to dealing with these crises have tended to be fragmented or siloed," said Professor Paula Harrison, a co-chair of the assessment and an environmental scientist who focuses on land and water modelling at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, a research organisation. "That's led to inefficiencies and has often been counterproductive."