Nature at the Nexus: Accelerating Ecosystem-based Adaptation at COP30 and Beyond
This COP30 official side event will highlight how Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) strengthens resilience and reduces vulnerability, bringing together diverse voices to identify policy and finance measures to accelerate EbA adoption across the Rio Conventions—emphasizing gender, community leadership, and coherent governance.
Protecting and restoring nature is increasingly recognised as a powerful, cross-cutting solution to tackle the interlinked crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and land degradation—while advancing human well-being and sustainable development. Nature’s role as a cornerstone of integrated action is reinforced across decisions under the three Rio Conventions (UNFCCC, CBD, and UNCCD). Under the UNFCCC, both the 2023 Global Stocktake and the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) reaffirmed the essential role of conserving, restoring, and sustainably managing ecosystems in achieving global adaptation outcomes.
This event will spotlight how integrated approaches such as Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) can enhance adaptive capacity, strengthen resilience, and reduce vulnerability to climate impacts. Bringing together leading voices from climate, biodiversity, and development communities, the session will identify critical policy and practical actions to accelerate the recognition and adoption of EbA across Rio Conventions and beyond – informed by FEBA’s network activities, including its annual flagship event: Ecosystem-based Adaptation Knowledge Day.
Speakers will share experiences from across the Friends of Ecosystem-based Adaptation (FEBA) network, highlighting collaborative working groups, innovative approaches, and synergies that advance both policy and implementation. Discussions will emphasise how strengthening nature–climate linkages contributes to multiple Sustainable Development Goals, including gender equality, biodiversity conservation, and community resilience. Speakers will underscore the urgency of coherent, simultaneous measures—spanning policy, finance, and governance—to safeguard nature as a foundation for collective progress, and the importance of learning networks that bridge practitioners and policymakers to share methodologies, success stories, and lessons for accelerating effective EbA implementation.
Speakers include:
- Ali Raza Rizvi, Director, Global Climate Change & Energy Transition, IUCN (Moderator)
- Larissa Stiem-Bhatia, Policy Advisor, Germany’s Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUKN)
- Gregory Davies-Jones, Programme Officer, Global Climate Change & Energy Transition, IUCN
- Tristan Tyrrell, Programme Management Officer for Biodiversity, Climate Change and Dry & Subhumid Lands, CBD Secretariat
- Mirey Atallah, Chief of the Adaptation and Resilience Branch, UN Environment Programme (UNEP)
- Jeffrey Qi, Policy Advisor, Resilience Program, International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)
- Gabriel Quijandría, IUCN’s Regional Director for South America
Learn more about FEBA.
Check out other events at COP30 by FEBA members here.
See more events by the IUCN Global Climate Change and Energy Transition Team here.