In last year’s State of the Global Climate Report, the World Meteorological Organization highlighted 2024 as a critical turning point: it is the first full calendar year to exceed 1.5 degrees C above pre-industrial levels. This alarming trend underscores the immense impact climate change is having on humans as well as on biodiversity and natural resources. As ecosystems face mounting pressure and their ability to adapt diminishes, it is vital to act decisively in the remainder of what the United Nations Secretary General has called the ‘critical decade’.
National strategies and biodiversity plans are essential to addressing the challenges of climate change, and, if well designed and harmonized, can play a transformative role in protecting biodiversity and natural resources.
Under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and UN Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), countries’ national reports serve as critical tools to guide their domestic climate change and biodiversity actions, including:
- National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), which focus on adapting to climate change and building resilience under the UNFCCC.
- National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs), which aim to conserve biodiversity under the UN Convention on Biodiversity.
- Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), which outline climate goals under the Paris Agreement, focusing primarily on emissions reductions.
These plans overlap and should be interconnected, but in practice they rarely are. For instance, many countries treat NBSAPs, NDCs, and NAPs as separate processes, missing opportunities to align the goals within them for greater impact, ultimately reducing their collective effectiveness. A UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs and UNFCCC report highlights strong links between biodiversity loss, and climate change, noting that healthy ecosystems are vital for resilience. Global environmental goals largely overlap, but fragmented governance and siloed funding hinders their progress. The report calls for integrated policies and financing to align climate and biodiversity goals, address trade-offs, and tackle environmental injustice.
This underlines that NBSAPs, NDCs and NAPs should be aligned along similar goals, milestones and timelines. When synchronized, they can create synergies that yield more impactful outcomes, such as unlocking additional funding from international climate and biodiversity funds. An integrated approach helps avoid contradictory policies and promotes holistic solutions to climate and biodiversity challenges.
By synergizing the biodiversity and climate change elements of NDCs with NBSAPs and NAPs, countries can better achieve both climate and biodiversity goals in line with their national circumstances. For example, halting and reversing deforestation and forest degradation by 2030 and implementing nature-based solutions and ecosystem-based approaches (two targets from the 2023 global stocktake under the Paris Agreement and from the UAE Framework for Global Climate Resilience) should be addressed across all three plans.
For more information see the following C2ES papers:
Belize is a good case study. It submitted an updated NDC in 2025 and previously submitted a NBSAP and a NAP, all of which emphasize the importance of mangroves. The country has set national goals to restore and protect mangroves, including a commitment to conserve and restore the majority of publicly owned mangrove areas. This coordinated approach recognizes the dual benefits of mangroves: they sequester significant carbon from the atmosphere, contributing to climate mitigation, while also protecting coastlines and supporting livelihoods, enhancing climate adaptation.
Countries are behind in submitting NAPs, NBSAPs and NDCs. These delays in planning and reporting undermine the global climate response, leaving gaps in national efforts to combat climate change and biodiversity loss. The complexity of these planning processes combined with financial and technical constraints contribute to the slow pace of progress.
Looking ahead to COP30 in Brazil, there is an urgent need to better integrate climate and biodiversity goals. The incoming Brazilian COP Presidency has a unique opportunity to lead by example, demonstrating international leadership on biodiversity, ecosystem conservation, halting and reversing deforestation. Brazil should use COP30 to share best practices on forest protection, biodiversity and ecosystem conservation, particularly in the Amazon. The Presidency must send a strong signal to Parties on the importance of aligning NAPs, NBSAPs, and NDCs to maximize synergies across climate and biodiversity agendas. This message could be formalized in a COP30 decision as part of the discussion on synergies between the environmental conventions (Rio Convention) that encourages Parties to synchronize these national plans, and to report on progress in an integrated manner.
In parallel, all governments, along with the private sector and civil society, must work together to set clear targets, mobilize finance, and establish effective systems for monitoring and accountability. Achieving meaningful outcomes will require collaboration across all sectors to scale up action, accelerate implementation, and ensure coherence across climate and biodiversity efforts.
