Together, the IPBES reports offer the path forward to tackling the interconnected environment, social, and economic crises by 2030. A number of researchers from Future Earth contributed to the reports.

The long-awaited Nexus Assessment and Transformative Change reports were launched on 17 December in Windhoek, Namibia by the 11th session of the IPBES Plenary. The Nexus Assessment report addresses the interlinkages among biodiversity, water, food, and health and the Transformative Change Assessment explores the underlying causes of biodiversity loss, determinants of transformative change, and options for achieving the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity.

KEY FINDINGS IN THE NEXUS REPORT

The Assessment Report on the Interlinkages Among Biodiversity, Water, Food and Health – known as the Nexus Report – offers decision-makers around the world the most ambitious scientific assessment ever undertaken of these complex interconnections and explores more than five dozen specific response options to maximize co-benefits across five ‘nexus elements’: biodiversity, water, food, health and climate change.

The report says that biodiversity – the richness and variety of all life on Earth – is declining at every level from global to local, and across every region. These ongoing declines in nature, largely as a result of human activity, including climate change, have direct and dire impacts on food security and nutrition, water quality and availability, health and wellbeing outcomes, resilience to climate change and almost all of nature’s other contributions to people.

Despite efforts by governments and institutions, indirect socioeconomic drivers like overconsumption and waste have exacerbated the situation, with many economic activities negatively affecting nature while prioritizing short-term financial returns. The report estimates the unaccounted-for costs of these activities at $10-25 trillion annually, while also stressing that delayed action on biodiversity and climate goals will increase costs and risks.

The report also emphasizes the unequal impact of these crises, particularly on vulnerable populations in developing countries, Indigenous communities, and low-income areas. It calls for more inclusive decision-making and coordinated actions to address both direct and indirect drivers. The report outlines over 70 response options across policy, political, and community levels, such as restoring ecosystems, sustainable diets, and supporting Indigenous food systems, that can help address interconnected global challenges. These solutions, if implemented together, can help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and other international frameworks for biodiversity and climate change.

“The best way to bridge single issue silos is through integrated and adaptive decision-making. ‘Nexus approaches’ offer policies and actions that are more coherent and coordinated – moving us towards the transformative change needed to meet our development and sustainability goals,” said Prof. McElwe, co-chair of the Assessment and a member of the Future Earth community.

Read the Summary for Policymakers.

KEY FINDINGS OF THE TRANSFORMATIVE CHANGE REPORT

The IPBES Assessment Report on the Underlying Causes of Biodiversity Loss and the Determinants of Transformative Change and Options for Achieving the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity – also known as the Transformative Change Report – builds on the 2019 IPBES Global Assessment Report, which found that the only way to achieve global development goals is through transformative change, and on the 2022 IPBES Values Assessment Report. It explains what transformative change is, how it occurs, and how to accelerate it for a just and sustainable world.

The cost of delaying actions to halt and reverse biodiversity loss and nature’s decline around the world by even a decade is estimated to be double that of acting now. Acting immediately can also unlock massive business and innovation opportunities through sustainable economic approaches, such as nature-positive economy, ecological economy and Mother-Earth centric economy. Recent estimates are that more than $10 trillion in business opportunity value could be generated and 395 million jobs could be supported globally by 2030.

The report identifies four principles to guide deliberate transformative change: equity and justice; pluralism and inclusion; respectful and reciprocal human-nature relationships; and adaptive learning and action.

The report also identifies five overarching challenges to transformative change: relations of domination over nature and people, especially those that emerged and were propagated in colonial eras and that persist over time; economic and political inequalities; inadequate policies and unfit institutions; unsustainable consumption and production patterns including individual habits and practices; as well as limited access to clean technologies and uncoordinated knowledge and innovation systems.

Embracing insights and evidence from diverse knowledge systems, disciplines and approaches, the Transformative Change Report highlights five key strategies and associated actions that have complementary and synergistic effects, and which countries and people can pursue to advance deliberate transformative change for global sustainability:

1. Conserve, restore and regenerate places of value to people and nature that exemplify biocultural diversity.
2. Drive systematic change and mainstreaming biodiversity in the sectors most responsible for nature’s decline.
3. Transform economic systems for nature and equity.
4. Transform governance systems to be inclusive, accountable and adaptive.
5. Shift views and values to recognize human-nature interconnectedness.

Read the Summary for Policymakers.

Below are the members of the Future Earth community who contributed to the reports and in what capacity:

Nexus Assessment experts:

• Lucas Enrico – Lead author, National Scientific and Technical Research Council of Argentina (CONICET) (Nominated by Future Earth)
• Diana Mangalagiu – Coordinating lead author, University of Oxford (nominated by Future Earth)
• Giles Sioen – Review editor, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan/Future Earth (nominated by Future Earth)
• Pamela Mcelwee – Chair, Rutgers University
• David Obura – Bureau task force/expert group member, Coastal Oceans Research and Development – Indian Ocean (CORDIO) East Africa
• Mark Rounsevell – Coordinating lead author, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
• Fabrice Declerk – Coordinating lead author, Bioversity International/CGIAR
• Kim Schumacher – Lead author, Kyushu University/University of Oxford
• Alex Godoy – Lead author, Sustainability Research Centre & Strategic Resource Management, School of Engineering, Universidad del Desarrollo

Transformative Change experts:

• Erle Eellis – Lead Author, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (nominated by Future Earth)
• Lucas Garibaldi – Chair, Universidad Nacional de Río Negro
• Lynn Shannon – Coordinating lead author, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town
• Sebastian Villasante – Coordinating lead author, University of Santiago de Compostela
• Chinwe Ifejika Speranza – Lead author, Institute of Geography, University of Bern
• Markus Fischer – MEP task force/expert group member, University of Bern
• Niki Frantzeskaki – Coordinating lead author, Utrecht University
• David Obura – Bureau task force/expert group member, Coastal Oceans Research and Development – Indian Ocean (CORDIO) East Africa