10 August 2009: The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is inviting comments by governments, non-governmental organizations, institutions, members of universities and scientific bodies, and individuals on the first draft of the third edition of Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO-3). Comments are invited until 1 October 2009.

Among its main arguments, the Outlook calls for addressing with equal priority and in close coordination the linked challenges of biodiversity loss and climate change, in order to avoid the most severe impacts of each. The draft GBO-3 recognizes that it comes at a time when “the world’s focus is fixed as never before on the great challenge of climate change” and suggests it is the appropriate time to evaluate and communicate the critical role of biodiversity in limiting both the scale and impacts of the build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The authors also underline the opportunities to meet simultaneously these two linked challenges.
GBO-3 argues for tackling biodiversity loss and climate change in tandem, bearing in mind the following four principal messages: climate change will drive biodiversity loss, and moderating climate change will, in the long term, safeguard ecosystem services; protecting biodiversity will also help to moderate climate change; protecting biodiversity will help us adapt to the unavoidable consequences of climate change; and climate change and biodiversity must be considered together to avoid perverse outcomes.
GBO-3 aims to provide an assessment of the progress made in meeting the 2010 Biodiversity Target and will be an important tool in informing the policy process and international biodiversity commitments during the next meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the CBD in Nagoya, Japan, in 2010. [Draft GBO-3]