The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has issued a white paper identifying practical pathways for integrated implementation of the three Rio Conventions – the UNFCCC, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). The paper seeks to guide a shift from siloed approaches to coherent implementation systems that deliver across climate, biodiversity, and land objectives efficiently, transparently, and at scale.
The report is titled, ‘From Silos to Synergies: Linking Planning, Finance, and Monitoring for Coherent Action on Climate, Biodiversity, and Land.’ Building on insights from a Rio Synergies Stakeholder Dialogue Series, it highlights both enablers of system-level reform – and barriers to achieving it.
Underscoring the importance of integrated planning that can be achieved by aligning nationally determined contributions (NDCs), National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs), and land degradation neutrality (LDN) targets, the report identifies four systemic barriers: institutional silos; misaligned planning cycles; capacity and incentive gaps; and data and knowledge fragmentation.
The paper emphasizes the need for high-level political commitment and long-term strategic vision to integrate the Rio Conventions into domestic policymaking. It calls for intersectoral and multilevel coordination, skills development and capacity strengthening, and leveraging digitalization and data governance for integrated planning. The report proposes spatial and landscape planning as a vehicle for coherence, showcasing an initiative to align climate and biodiversity plans through spatial prioritization, among other case studies.
On financing synergistic implementation, the paper highlights “structural mismatches” across: scale and time horizons; funding architecture, characterized by fragmentation; public good economics, marked by weak bankability and risk-return profiles; and data and integrity, with immature biodiversity and land monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) systems creating investor uncertainty.
Among emerging approaches seeking to improve cross-sectoral integration, the report identifies:
- Integrated budget tagging and Medium-Term Expenditure Frameworks (MTEFs);
- Whole-of-government coordination; and
- Public narrative and political economy.
Key recommendations include engaging planning and finance ministries in synergy coordination platforms, linking NDCs, NBSAPs, and LDN targets to fiscal signals through national finance strategies, and expanding environmental taxonomies and budget codes to capture multi-benefit spending.
The report outlines how international finance and country-led platforms can help address fragmentation, highlights the role of private sector and blended finance approaches in scaling investment in climate, biodiversity, and land restoration, and identifies enabling conditions for synergistic finance.
The paper lists challenges limiting coherent monitoring and reporting that range from policy integration to data ownership and financing. Among enablers of coherent reporting, it names institutional coordination, local integration, sectoral alignment, national data repositories, harmonized analytical frameworks, and policy feedback.
Developed with support from Germany’s Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUKN), the report was released on 17 November, during the 2025 UN Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP 30) in Belém, Brazil. [Publication: From Silos to Synergies: Linking Planning, Finance, and Monitoring for Coherent Action on Climate, Biodiversity, and Land] [Technical Highlights] [Publication Landing Page]