Biodiversity and climate change as seen through the lens of equity and justice: implications for human health

The IPBES Nexus Assessment on the interlinkages between biodiversity, water, food and health within the context of climate change, provided definitive evidence that the twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change must be considered concurrently. In addition, these environmental changes will have profound implications for human health and well-being worldwide, resulting in increasingly frequent extreme weather events such as heatwaves, storms and floods, the disruption of food systems, increases in zoonoses and food, water and vector-borne diseases and declining mental health. However, to-date these crises are often tackled independently, with biodiversity loss often considered as the poorer cousin to climate change, receiving much less media coverage and direct funding, whilst health is considered completely independently to either of these challenges. This talk will present the task of addressing environmental change through the lens of justice and equity. Health impacts from climate change and biodiversity loss will be felt unequally, with certain groups at greater risk from these negative health outcomes, such as the elderly or young, pregnant women and socio-economically disadvantaged. We investigated how social groups are differentially influenced by several negative health outcomes resulting from environmental change, including extreme temperatures and loss of biodiversity and resultant ecosystem services. Age, sex, and socio-economic status were important factors influencing the impact of environmental change on health. This talk will blur the boundaries between disciplinary silos, drawing on knowledge from across the natural, social, and medical sciences – arguing that to ensure the success of international agreements and programmes such as the SDGs or the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, we must account for intersectionality as well as indigenous and local knowledge (ILK). We will make the argument that new and novel research and policy approaches to managing environmental change must take into consideration the intersectionality to ensure that they minimise and reduce inequalities rather than exacerbate them.