Enabling Local Governance to Mitigate the Climate and Biodiversity Crises

Task Force 6: Accelerating SDGs: Exploring New Pathways to the 2030 Agenda 1. The Challenge Around US$ 44 trillion, more than half of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP), depends on natural resources such as water, forests, and minerals. [1] Uncontrolled exploitation of forests, ecosystems, and natural resources has resulted in unprecedented biodiversity decline and ecosystem services disruption, [2] and this is true for many G20 countries (Figure 1). Logging, land conversion, and land use for agriculture linked to food, fibre, feed, and wood supply chains account for 22 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. [3] Climate change adversely affects natural resources and biodiversity conservation efforts. Biodiversity loss and climate change are twin crises and must be addressed together, including their combined social impacts. [4] Figure 1. Biodiversity Intactness Index of G20 countries in 2020 (%) Source: Biodiversity Intactness Index database, under the projected scenario ‘Middle of the Road’ development (SSP2). [5] , [a] Deforestation, ecosystem conversion and environmental degradation exacerbate social conflicts and economic inequalities, especially in developing countries, and jeopardise just transition. The G20 Sustainable Finance Working Group (SFWG) Private Sector Roundtable in April 2022 acknowledged that it was critical to “assess and mitigate potential negative impacts in the process of climate transition, including at community level.” [6] Local actors, such as small farmers and traditional and indigenous communities, often lack the institutional power, social organisation, skills and resources to valorise and defend their roles in preserving and managing natural resources. Although comprising the largest part of rural populations, these groups are often excluded from markets and thus from deriving benefits from their natural resources. [7] As the global Millennium Ecosystem Assessment emphasised, policies and guidelines on sustainable natural resource management and generation of environmental services for rural livelihoods often lack equitable ownership and sharing of information and knowledge. [8]