UNFCCC

Key areas for anchoring co-benefits safeguards in the UNFCCC to help avoid negative impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services and promote their maintenance, include:

• REDD-plus in developing countries. Negative impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services are possible, e.g., if REDD-plus incentivises the displacement of land use pressures from forest into other ecosystems of importance for biodiversity.
• LULUCF accounting rules. Current rules do not encourage Annex I countries to decrease or minimise emissions from, e.g., degradation of forest and non-forest ecosystems, activities which are likely to impact negatively on biodiversity and ecosystem services.
• NAMAs of non-Annex I Parties. If NAMAs can include activities, e.g., from the transport sector or energy sector, including the production of biofuels, negative impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services are likely.
• Sustainable energy production. Energy-related mitigation technologies can have negative impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services, e.g. if biofuels are cultivated in places that replace natural ecosystems.
• Carbon capture and storage in geological formations. While knowledge on potential impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services is limited, environmental safeguards in the text could still help minimise them.
• Adaptation to climate change impacts, e.g. through the management of ecosystems and the use of other technology, such as the creation of hard structures for coastal defence. While the first is likely to impact positively on biodiversity and ecosystem services, the latter can be damaging. Due to the important role of ecosystems in adaptation, it will be important to avoid damage of ecosystems through other adaptation technology.