Climate change not only threatens the future of human societies, it also harms nature and biodiversity. As a study now shows, this also jeopardizes the achievement of international goals for the preservation of biological diversity: If climate change is not taken into account more strongly, many well-intentioned protective measures may fail, scientists warn.
Destroyer humans: Studies have long shown that humans harm the biological diversity of our planet. According to this, for example one million animal and plant species worldwide are acutely endangered and the sixth major mass extinction is in full swing. Responsible for this are, among other things, the intensive use of land by us humans, which destroys natural habitats, but also environmental pollution and the introduction of invasive species.
How strongly does climate change affect species protection?
Climate change is also affecting the distribution and survival of animal and plant species worldwide. The warming of land and sea is already causing problems for many species. Some migrate to cooler areas, but others cannot prevail against better adapted competition. In many regions it is also getting drier, so that plants and animals have to cope with less water. An international team of researchers led by Almut Arneth from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) has now examined in more detail how strong the effects of climate change are on biodiversity and species protection.
In particular, the researchers wanted to check whether the current goals for protecting biodiversity take sufficient account of climate change. In their study, the scientists analyzed the so-called Aichi goals for global biodiversity protection. These were adopted at the 10th Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in 2010 and should be achieved by 2020. The team also dealt with the revised protection goals currently being negotiated by the participating states, which are to be achieved by 2030 and 2050 respectively.
Effect of protective measures impaired
The results showed that global warming is accelerating the decline in biological diversity more than previously assumed. “In addition to the exploitation of natural resources such as land and water as well as environmental pollution, climate change is also leading to a loss of biological diversity and will have an even greater impact in this regard in the future,” emphasizes Arneth. Therefore, the existing and newly proposed goals for the protection of biodiversity are strongly endangered by global warming – even if this remains at the lower limit of the prognoses, say the researchers.
“It is certainly a great challenge, but also an important opportunity to coordinate the biodiversity goals more closely with the Paris Agreement on climate protection and the goals for sustainable development,” explains Arneth. Therefore, the proposed biodiversity targets should take climate change into account much more closely. For example, the goal of preserving nature reserves as a retreat for plants and animals. Climate change plays a crucial role in this, because certain plant and animal species migrate from the areas or are threatened if the climatic conditions change. When, for example, mountain glaciers shrink due to global warming, there is a lack of melt water in lower valleys in summer. Then even a protected area in the valley can do little to help the plants and animals that live there.
Conservation also helps against climate change
The fact that climate change and biodiversity are related was also shown the other way around: In their study, the scientists demonstrated that the measures to protect biological diversity can also contribute to climate protection and mitigate climate change. “A better coordination of political agreements and scientific knowledge can both accelerate the urgent decarbonisation of the economy and ensure that climate change is slowed down through measures to protect biodiversity,” summarizes Arneth.
The researchers are therefore calling for the man-made emissions of greenhouse gases to be reduced rapidly and significantly and for climate change to be stopped. In addition, it is necessary to use flexible methods in nature conservation to react dynamically to the consequences of climate change that are already occurring for habitats and species.
Source: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Article: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, doi: 10.1073 / pnas.2009584117