Professor Tasman Crowe:

I will elaborate a little bit more on the way I see the intersection with climate change. There are three ways in which biodiversity and climate change and climate action intersect. We hear quite a lot about the important role of nature in climate mitigation in terms of forests, the oceans and other habitats absorbing carbon and taking it out of the atmosphere. That is an important space. The narrative needs to move strongly towards the adaptation space as well. The changes are coming. No matter what we do on mitigation, we are going to see changes. We are feeling them now. Nature has a very important role to play on our behalf in slowing down floodwaters, protecting the coast from storm surges and so on. In many places, that is being embraced. In Copenhagen, there is a climate adaptation plan that is built around funnelling water into the green spaces and making them rich sponges for absorbing rainwater flows and so on. We can benefit from nature in that way. The third intersection is, of course, that climate change is affecting nature and exacerbating many of the other pressures we put on the system. We have to recognise that, if we want nature to help us, we are going to have to help nature. We need climate adaptation that will benefit nature. That will also benefit us, in turn.

It is great to see the strength with which people are now responding to climate change. I refer to the climate action plan and public organisations being held to account in respect of a series of obligations now placed on them by the Government. That is being followed up on. The same could happen for biodiversity. They could sit on the same kind of footing. In a way, it is as important, or more important, to do that. The dependency is very strong.