IIED at Climate Week NYC 2022

Organised in parallel with the United Nations General Assembly, Climate Week NYC 2022 took place from 19-25 September to create an ambitious platform to drive climate action.

The same week saw world leaders gathering in New York for the World Biodiversity Summit on 21 September. This was aimed at bridging the climate and biodiversity agendas and supporting solutions that can halt biodiversity loss and address climate change challenges together.

IIED and its partners contributed to those important global agendas by showcasing proven effective actions that are good for people, nature and climate as well as financing delivery mechanisms that can channel much needed resources to support and spread those actions.

We also released the latest episode of our Make Change Happen podcast which provided further insights into how to spur actions to deliver those global ambitions through innovative financing mechanisms that make money flows to where it matters.

Key events

Money where it matters for nature and climate actions: innovative solutions and learnings from practice

Date: Thursday, 22 September 2022

Organisers: IIED, BirdLife International (BLI), Fauna & Flora International (FFI)

Speakers included: Minnie Degawan, International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity; Duncan Lang, Asia Development Bank; Mandy Barnett, South African National Biodiversity Institute; Sandeep Roy Choudhury, VNV Advisory Services; Joseph Hutabarat, Flora and Fauna International

Major climate and biodiversity conferences taking place at the end of the year are a key moment to bring climate and nature finance together. Climate and nature finance needs and opportunities are on the rise, with net zero strategies ramping up and the demand signal for nature-based carbon continuing to rise exponentially. However, questions remain over the real impact of this mounting momentum and if it can truly deliver locally-led action.

This event brought together representatives from Indigenous Peoples and local communities, government, project managers, finance sector, private and public investors and solutions providers to ensure climate and nature projects are delivered to the front line and according to the priorities and needs of Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

Speakers discusses the progress with global finance for climate and nature translating into local action and how the UNFCCC COP27 and CBD COP15 provide a pivotal moment to see high quality and high integrity benefits for climate, biodiversity and people on the ground. They also shared different approaches to channelling resources for real outcomes at the local scale and discuss the strategic challenges and opportunities for what's next.

Watch a recording of the event

Connecting the dots: climate change and biodiversity interlinkages in Asia-Pacific, from science to policy and practice

Date: Thursday, 22 September 2022

Organiser: Asia Pacific Adaptation Network (APAN)

Climate change and biodiversity loss are intrinsically connected. The good news is, so are the solutions! Nature was at the forefront of the 2021 UN climate change summit (COP26) and is expected to be a key topic at COP27, in Egypt in November 2022.

Targeting climate change adaptation practitioners, the event aimed to:

Enhance adaptation practitioners’ knowledge and understanding of interlinkages between biodiversity and climate change
Provide an overview of the different international conventions increasingly recognising these links
Highlight the policy and finance gaps to increase synergies, and
Discuss the variety of climate and biodiversity benefits offered by nature-based solutions and more specific approaches to ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) and showcasing projects from the region.

The event featured lessons from IIED’s work on ecosystem-based approaches to climate change adaptation, also known as nature-based solutions for climate change adaptation.