December 18, 2024

expert reaction to the IPBES ‘Transformative Change Assessment’

Scientists comment on the IPBES Transformative Change Assessment.

Dr Lisa Norton, Agro-ecologist, senior scientist, UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH), said:

“This assessment clearly highlights the fundamental causes of biodiversity loss – disconnection and domination over nature by people, concentration of power and wealth and prioritisation of short term material gain. It advocates for shifts in the ways in which people think about, know and see nature and resultant transformations in the ways in which we organise, regulate and govern which value biodiversity and seek to enhance it.

“It provides insights into the need for adaptive learning that will help the global community to move forward in a transformative change process which will sometimes prove challenging or counter-intuitive at local or regional scales. It recognises the challenges faced, including combatting those with vested interests in retaining current practices which threaten biodiversity. In contrast, the inter-twined roles of changing personal values, working together, empowering biodiversity champions and developing beneficial science and technology are promoted.

“The importance of every action, in particular local scale context specific actions and the potential for scaling these up is recognised as key to transformative change, with multiple global case studies already paving the way.

“Strategies for transformative change highlight the need for recognition of biodiversity as the fundamental human support system in both economic and governance systems as well as by each human being through reconnecting humans with nature. They recognise both the importance of supporting communities and Indigenous People’s to continue to work positively to enhance biodiversity and of working with those whose land management is driving continuing declines in biodiversity through economic drivers. It highlights the roles for governments, private businesses, civil society organisations and individuals in transformative change for biodiversity.

“The report provides positive and practical guidelines for transformative change, recognising that despite the difficulties of the challenge such paradigm shifts in society have happened before and can happen again. It is a reminder that all our systems are socio-ecological and that once society fully recognises our reliance on biodiversity we, as individuals and through our various roles and societal structures can begin a wide ranging process to transform the future for biodiversity and for humanity.”

Prof Tom Oliver, Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research (Environment) & Profesor of Applied Ecology, University of Reading, said:

“A bedrock of prosocial values seems an obvious requirement for civilization, yet in the face of environmental crisis we seem unable to grasp that technological fixes, economic incentives or command-and-control regulatory approaches alone are not sufficient; we need a deeper shift in pro-environmental values. For example, reconnecting with nature, by seeing it not as something separate but as part of ourselves, turns out to be a key solution for enabling pro-environmental behaviour, such as recycling, reducing carbon footprints and buying sustainably. This timely report evidences these assertions and outlines specific ways to steward mindsets and worldviews towards a more sustainable culture. These inner changes also ‘cascade up’ to create institutional change, influencing economies, legal systems and education systems, which are all partly responsible for the environmental crisis we are in. There is no more timely topic for an international expert report in these troubled times where environmental catastrophes are driving severe social crises such as food insecurity, migration, disease and geopolitical strife. The need for transformative change is clear, how to shift from the status quo is the challenge.”

Dr Alexander Lees, Reader in Biodiversity at Manchester Metropolitan University, said:

“The new landmark IPBES thematic assessment makes a powerful case for the need for transformative change to halt the entwined biodiversity and climate crises. For too long conservation and sustainable development efforts have tinkered at the edge of these crises, performing emergency room interventions to address symptoms, rather than addressing their underlying causes. The report calls on policy makers to mitigate the direct and indirect drivers at the root cause of the problems, our unsustainable patterns of production and consumption, our prevailing laws and policies, and even our norms, values and worldviews. The major barriers for ‘system-wide reorganization’ are political and societal and there is still a dearth of evidence for how we end up with the necessary inclusive, accountable and adaptive governance systems needed to achieve this. Hopefully this latest report will act as a catalyst for world leaders to move swiftly to address these global environmental challenges rather than just pay lip service to them”.

The IPBES Transformative Change Assessment was launched at 13:00 UK time on Wednesday 18^th December 2024. 

Declared interests

Dr Lisa Norton: No conflicts to declare.

Dr Alexander Lees: no conflicts to declare.

Prof Tom Oliver: Prof. Tom Oliver is employed by the University of Reading. He is currently writing a book “The Nature Delusion- why our current fixes for environmental crisis are making things worse” commissioned by Bristol University press. He has received funding from the V.Kann Rasmussen foundation for a project on catalysing change for ‘nature-centric awareness and governance’. He has received funding from NERC, Green Finance Institute and BBSRC to develop methodologies for assessing nature-related risks. He was previously seconded with the Government Office for Science to work with UK Cabinet Office on chronic and acute risks faced by the UK, and was seconded to Defra to help design their Systems Research Programme. He is lead educator on a Future Learn course “Using systems thinking to tackle the climate and biodiversity crisis” and is author of the book “The Self Delusion: The Surprising Science of Our Connection to Each Other and the Natural World” published by Weidenfeld & Nicholson. Oliver sits on the Food Standards Agency science council and is a member of the Office for Environmental Protection expert college.