15 March 2010: During a meeting on 15 March 2010, in Brussels, Belgium, the Council of the Environment Ministers of the EU adopted Conclusions on biodiversity post-2010, which include several references to climate change.
In its Conclusions, the Council recognizes that climate change is increasingly among the strongest pressures on biodiversity, and that unavoidable climate change could even aggravate some effects, such as the proportion of species facing extinction. It underlines that the development and transfer of best practices and technologies will be essential to achieve a coordinated response, and stresses the need for cost-effective use of resources to cope with biodiversity loss, climate change and desertification.
The Council further stresses that effective policies in support of biodiversity and climate change mitigation and adaptation are inextricably linked, and highlights that greater convergence at international and national levels is needed in efforts to address both issues in a mutually reinforcing manner, optimizing opportunities in ongoing global processes within the CBD and UNFCCC, and in the preparations for Rio+20.
In the Conclusions, the Council recognizes that public and private finance, including innovative forms of financing, and finance associated with the Copenhagen Accord, should -based on appropriate criteria- include scope for payments for ecosystem services. It further provides that such finance should specifically support conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity within REDD+ (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, including conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks) as appropriate, through the implementation of negotiated safeguards. Finally, the Council stresses the positive contribution of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture to food security and climate adaptation and mitigation through the conservation and sustainable use of these genetic resources. [Council Conclusions] [Meeting Announcement]