Enabling climate action: A nexus approach for delivering co-benefits across biodiversity, water, food, and health

Summary

This comparative analysis, anchored in the IPBES Nexus Assessment, synthesises evidence from fifteen climate response options to understand why technically viable interventions generate uneven outcomes across biodiversity, water, food and health. The study finds that ecosystem-centred and demand-side pathways more consistently produce synergies through ecological functions, whilst infrastructure and technology options deliver context-dependent benefits shaped by land use, water demand and tenure conditions. The analysis integrates nexus governance with Earth System Justice, concluding that institutional alignment of ecological interdependencies with social rights and responsibilities is essential for sustained system-wide benefits.

Regional applicability

Although this is a global comparative analysis rather than a United Kingdom-specific study, its findings on nexus governance and cross-sectoral coordination are directly relevant to UK climate policy integration across food, water, biodiversity and health sectors. The emphasis on procedural inclusion, equity and accountability in benefit-sharing has implications for UK devolved governance, land-use planning, and the coherence of environmental and food security policies.

Key measures

Cross-nexus outcomes (biodiversity, water, food, health impacts); synergy patterns; governance and justice conditions (cross-sectoral coordination, distributive equity, procedural inclusion, accountable finance, knowledge pluralism); durability of co-benefits

Outcomes reported

The study examined how fifteen climate response options across land, ocean, energy, urban, industrial and societal transitions generate uneven cross-nexus outcomes for biodiversity, water, food and health. It identified conditions under which these outcomes become durable co-benefits through governance and justice mechanisms.

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