Environmental crises is made worse by fragmented governance of biodiversity, water, food, health and climate change. “Different institutions and actors work in isolation on siloed policy agendas, resulting in conflicting objectives and inefficient resource use. These direct and indirect drivers interact with each other and cause cascading impacts across different issues,” the IPBES said adding the example of increasingly affluent societies driving increases in food demand, leading to more land use change for agriculture, expanding unsustainable intensified practices; in turn triggering biodiversity loss, reduced water availability and quality, and increases in greenhouse gas emissions, causing climate change and higher risks of pathogen emergence.

Biodiversity is essential to our very existence. It is also fast declining everywhere, at a rate of 2-6% per decade, the report has underlined. Scenarios with the widest benefits tend to include: effective conservation measures, ecosystem restoration, sustainable healthy diets, mitigating and adapting to climate change. “Nature-oriented approaches make it more likely that global climate goals are achieved than prioritising tackling emissions to the exclusion of all else. Climate change policies are more effective in future scenarios that minimize trade-offs - such as avoiding competition for land between mitigation policies (like tree planting) and other nexus elements (like food production),” the report has concluded.

Delaying action on climate, then using huge amounts of land to reduce carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, will potentially have negative impacts on nature, water and food supplies, because of increased competition for land, it has stressed. Forests capture, filter, and regulate water through their vegetation and soils, ensuring clean and accessible freshwater for up to 75% of the population in 2005. Coastal ecosystems contribute to over 50% of ocean carbon sequestration.

Around half the world’s GDP is dependent on nature - equivalent to about $58 trillion in 2023. The ‘external’ costs of the fossil fuel, agriculture and fisheries sectors - not accounted for in decision-making - add up to $10-25 trillion per year, as per IPBES. Whereas, public subsidies for damaging activities total around another $1.7 trillion. Economic activities that cause direct damage to nature add up to $5.3 trillion per year.

“The IPBES Nexus Assessment demonstrates that nature is not just a victim of crises—it is a powerful solution. Healthy, biodiversity-rich ecosystems, such as mangroves and tropical forests, play a vital role in mitigating climate change, controlling disease, and sustaining healthy diets and well-being. Investing in nature is an investment in our collective health and resilience,” said Dr Maria Neira, Director of the Health and Climate Department, World Health Organization in a statement.

“Climate change is posing record threats to the health and wellbeing of people all around the world — the prognosis is not looking good. Over 58% of infectious diseases are aggravated by climate hazards, with rising temperatures and extreme weather expanding pathogens like malaria, dengue, and Zika. Indigenous communities, whose health and ecosystems are disproportionately more impacted, hold critical knowledge for solutions. Protecting their rights is the prescription for change—not just for sustaining biodiversity ecosystems, but as a foundation for global health, resilience, and survival,” said Marina Romanello, the Executive Director of the Lancet Countdown, also in a statement.

The Nexus Assessment is prepared by 165 leading international experts, through an extensive review process starting in 2021, the report was approved over a week-long plenary session in Windhoek, Namibia. The full seven-chapter report will be published in 2025.

"In the environment ministry, there are separate groups of officials for biodiversity, climate change and land degradation or forests. At the global level also, there is a conference of parties (COP) on biodiversity, climate change and land degradation. But these are interdependent and hence these silos do not work. We need an authority to look at all this synergistically at a national and global level," said N H Ravindranath, retired professor, Indian Institute of Science and one of the reviewers of the report.