Abbreviation | IPBES |
---|---|
Formation | 2012 |
Type | Independent platform |
Legal status | Active |
Headquarters | Bonn, Germany |
Chair | David Obura |
Website | www.ipbes.net |
Politicsportal |
The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is an intergovernmental organization established to improve communication between science and policy on issues of biodiversity and ecosystem services. [1] It serves a similar role to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). [2]
The IPBES Bureau has agreed, on the basis of a proposal by the secretariat for the purposes of brand unity and brand recognition, to adopt a common pronunciation of the IPBES acronym. In keeping with widespread linguistic convention, the acronym is officially pronounced as “ip-bes” – “ip” as in “hip” and “bes” as in “best”. [3]
In 2010 a resolution by the 65th session of the United Nations General Assembly urged the United Nations Environment Programme to convene a plenary meeting to establish IPBES. [4] [5] In 2013 an initial conceptual framework was adopted for the prospective IPBES plenary. [5]
From 29 April to 4 May 2019, representatives of the 132 IPBES members met in Paris, France, to discuss the Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services [6] and to adopt its summary for policymakers (SPM). On 6 May 2019, the 40-page document was released, aiming to empower policymakers with the knowledge and evidence to make better decisions when developing policies and taking actions for the benefit of humans and nature. [7] [8]
On October 29, 2020, the organization issued a preliminary report through Zenodo on its workshop, held virtually on 27–31 July 2020, [12] that proposes a plan for international cooperation to lower risks for pandemics. Lowering the frequency and severity of pandemics through the implementation of worldwide policies is the objective of the organization. An article on the report was published by Medical News Today on November 7, 2020, that explicates information in the report. [13]
The 5th IPBES Plenary in 2017 noted that the concept of nature's contributions to people would be used in current and future IPBES assessments. The concept of “nature's contributions to people” has since replaced the use of the phrase “nature's benefits to people” that had been used in the conceptual framework as initially adopted in 2013. This change was met with objection from some scientists, who worried that the new term would be confusing and that NCPs were not significantly different from ecosystem services. [14]
In June 2021, IPBES and IPCC released a co-sponsored workshop report on biodiversity and climate change. The workshop produced a summary report covering outcomes, [15] and a 250-page scientific outcome report. [16]
The Nexus Assessment is a landmark new report by IPBES that came out on 17 December 2024. It looks at how biodiversity, water, food and health are all connected, and it's the most ambitious scientific assessment of these links ever done. It also looks at more than five dozen different ways to deal with the problem, to make the most of the benefits across the five 'nexus elements': biodiversity, water, food, health and climate change. [27]
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 Assessment – came out on 18 December 2024. It builds on the 2019 IPBES Global Assessment Report, which found that the only way to achieve global development goals is through transformative change. [28]
In October 2022, the IPBES and the IPCC shared the Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity, because the two intergovernmental organisations "produce scientific knowledge, alert society, and inform decision-makers to make better choices for combatting climate change and the loss of biodiversity". [29]
The Blue Planet Prize is awarded annually to individuals and organisations that have demonstrated exceptional accomplishments in scientific research and its practical applications. These achievements have contributed to the identification of solutions to pressing global environmental challenges.
The 2024 laureates include the IPBES, recognised as "the leading global authority on the state of knowledge and science about biodiversity, ecosystem services and nature's contributions to people". [30]
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an intergovernmental body of the United Nations. Its job is to advance scientific knowledge about climate change caused by human activities. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) set up the IPCC in 1988. The United Nations endorsed the creation of the IPCC later that year. It has a secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland, hosted by the WMO. It has 195 member states who govern the IPCC. The member states elect a bureau of scientists to serve through an assessment cycle. A cycle is usually six to seven years. The bureau selects experts in their fields to prepare IPCC reports. There is a formal nomination process by governments and observer organizations to find these experts. The IPCC has three working groups and a task force, which carry out its scientific work.
Sir Robert Tony Watson CMG FRS is a British chemist who has worked on atmospheric science issues including ozone depletion, global warming and paleoclimatology since the 1980s. Most recently, he is lead author of the February 2021 U.N. report Making Peace with Nature.
Land management is the process of managing the use and development of land resources. One aim of sustainable land management is to prevent or reverse land degradation. Another aim is to ensure water security by increasing soil moisture availability, decreasing surface runoff, and decreasing soil erosion. Land resources are used for a variety of purposes which may include for example agriculture, forestry, water resource management, human settlements and tourism. Unsustainable land managements leads to land being over- or misused which in turn degrades the land, reduces productivity and disrupts natural equilibriums.
Climate risk is the potential for problems for societies or ecosystems from the impacts of climate change. The assessment of climate risk is based on formal analysis of the consequences, likelihoods and responses to these impacts. Societal constraints can also shape adaptation options. There are different values and preferences around risk, resulting in differences of risk perception.
The work of the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ covers both basic research and applied research.
Anne Larigauderie is a French ecologist. She is currently the Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). She was previously the Head of Science in Society at ICSU, the International Council for Science, and the executive director of DIVERSITAS, the international scientific programme dedicated to biodiversity science, under the auspices of ICSU, and UNESCO.
Lindsay C. Stringer is a Professor in Environment and Development at the University of York.
William Cheung is a marine biologist, well known for his research on the impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems and fisheries. He currently works as director of science of the Nereus Program and is also an associate professor at the University of British Columbia, as well as Leader at the UBC Changing Ocean Research Unit.
Nature-based solutions describe the development and use of nature (biodiversity) and natural processes to address diverse socio-environmental issues. These issues include climate change mitigation and adaptation, human security issues such as water security and food security, and disaster risk reduction. The aim is that resilient ecosystems provide solutions for the benefit of both societies and biodiversity. The 2019 UN Climate Action Summit highlighted nature-based solutions as an effective method to combat climate change. For example, nature-based systems for climate change adaptation can include natural flood management, restoring natural coastal defences, and providing local cooling.
Karachepone N. Ninan is an ecological economist. Dr. Ninan was born in Nairobi, Kenya where he had his early school education. Thereafter he relocated to India where he continued his high school and college education.
Sandra Myrna DíazForMemRS is an Argentine ecologist and professor of ecology at the National University of Córdoba, who has been awarded with the Linnean Medal for her scientific work. She studies the functional traits of plants and investigates how plants impact the ecosystem.
The Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services is a report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, on the global state of biodiversity. A summary for policymakers was released on 6 May 2019. The report states that, due to human impact on the environment in the past half-century, the Earth's biodiversity has suffered a catastrophic decline unprecedented in human history, as an estimated 82 percent of wild mammal biomass has been lost. The report estimates that there are 8 million animal and plant species on Earth, with the majority represented by insects. Out of those 8 million species, 1 million are threatened with extinction, including 40 percent of amphibians, almost a third of reef-building corals, more than a third of marine mammals, and 10 percent of all insects.
Jeannine Cavender-Bares is Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University and Director of the Harvard University Herbaria. She is also adjunct professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution & Behavior at the University of Minnesota, where she served on the faculty for over two decades. Her research integrates evolutionary biology, ecology, and physiology by studying the functional traits of plants, with a particular focus on oaks.
Elena M. Bennett is an American ecosystem ecologist specializing in studying the interactions of ecosystem services on landscape. She is currently a Professor and the Canada Research Chair in Sustainability Science at McGill University. She was inducted to the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists in 2017. She was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2022 and became a Guggenheim Fellow in the same year.
Madhu Verma is Indian born environmental economist presently working as Chief Economist at WRI India. She has worked extensively on Economic Valuation & Green Accounting of Ecosystems & Biodiversity, Ecosystem-Economy Modelling, Tiger & Snow Leopard Habitat Valuation, Forest- Fiscal Federalism and Payment for Ecosystem Services.
In sociology, societal transformation refers to “a deep and sustained, nonlinear systemic change” in a society. Transformational changes can occur within a particular system, such as a city, a transport or energy system. Societal transformations can also refer to changes of an entire culture or civilization. Such transformations often include not only social changes but cultural, technological, political, and economic, as well as environmental. Transformations can be seen as occurring over several centuries, such as the Neolithic Revolution or at a rapid pace, such as the rapid expansion of megacities in China.
The Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of the United Nations (UN) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the sixth in a series of reports which assess the available scientific information on climate change. Three Working Groups covered the following topics: The Physical Science Basis (WGI); Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability (WGII); Mitigation of Climate Change (WGIII). Of these, the first study was published in 2021, the second report February 2022, and the third in April 2022. The final synthesis report was finished in March 2023. It includes a summary for policymakers and was the basis for the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai.
Timon McPhearson is an American urban ecologist, researcher, academic and author. He is Professor of Urban Ecology at The New School and the founder and director of its Urban Systems Lab. McPhearson is known for his interdisciplinary research on the interacting social-ecological-technological processes that drive urban system dynamics and impact human well-being. He is a Research Fellow at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies and Stockholm Resilience Centre. McPhearson received the 2023 Sustainability Science Award from the Ecological Society of America.
Aliyu Salisu Barau is a Nigerian academic and a full professor of Urban and Regional Planning at Bayero University Kano. He is the Dean of the Faculty of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Bayero University Kano and the West Africa Hub Director of the Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN), affiliated with the Earth Institute, Columbia University. He is also a Chartered Town Planner of the UK's Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI).