Globally, climate change has and is still threatening human lives, ecosystems and economies. Biodiversity is however, the nexus of climate change mitigation and adaptation. It plays a very crucial role in climate regulation even though it is a growing casualty in the fight against climate change. The fight against climate change have so far taken two major forms-Mitigation and Adaptation. Mitigation strategies include, majorly, renewable energy adoption, carbon sequestration and water/energy-use efficiency. Adaptation, though occurring in less noticeable ways, have involved the inclusion of global warming and climate change in a wide range of policies and developmental measures. Extreme weather disaster response, forest conservation, clean energy and clean water availability and the development of resistant/resilient crops are examples of such policies and measures.

Biological diversity, often termed biodiversity refers to the variety of life forms on Earth and the associated ecological and cultural formations. Biodiversity refers to every living thing from humans to microscopic organisms and invertebrates. There are about 530 million distinct living forms on Earth, majority of which are micro-organisms. Biodiversity is the product of several billion years of human activities and natural processes. Biodiversity is important for its values to the earth. These values could be utilitarian (food, shelter, medicine, fuel) or functional (pollination, nutrient cycling, water purification, waste decomposition, seed dispersal, pest control and climate control).
Hence, biodiversity and socio-environmental stability are closely connected. Our food and energy security strongly depends on biodiversity. Our health and material sufficiency depends on biodiversity. Our social relationships are dependent upon the biological diversity of the earth. In fact, human cultural and religious ingenuity is gained from ecosystems and/or components like landscapes, valleys, trees, rivers, or animal species. Over the past several decades, humans have dominated other life forms and have become exploitative towards the earth. This has led to rapid changes to ecological formations/functionality and huge loss in biodiversity. Human activities, either directly or indirectly, have fragmented and/or introduced invasive species to natural habitats and ecosystems; have engaged in the unsustainable use of natural resources; and have led to the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere leading to global warming. Global warming (the gradual rise in global temperatures) and by extension, climate change, are the biggest threats to biodiversity.
An example of the effect of human activities on biodiversity can be seen in the Okomu Forest reserve in Southern Nigeria. In the 1930s-1940s, the Okomu Forest Reserve, was a 1188 sq km closed-canopy natural tropical forest. By 1985, the natural tropical forest had been reduced to a 114 sq km carved out wildlife sanctuary which was home to several endangered species including red-capped mangabeys, white-throated monkeys, chimpanzees, leopards, and the African forest elephant. Large portions of the forest had been converted to oil palm plantation with visible road network and human settlement encroachment. Landsat images (2015) show the protected remains of the forest standing in contrast to the rubber/oil palm plantation to its north and farmlands to its south.


Although biodiversity is the strength/resilience of earth’s system to the changing climate, adapting to climate change has been a major contributing factor to biodiversity loss. Adaptation refers to adjustments made by a country or community to manage actual or potential impacts of climate change. These adjustments can range from building defenses, improving healthcare and communication systems, modifying plant species, to investing in early warning systems for changing weather conditions. These adjustments more often than not, undermine the ability of the earth to endure distress or restructure to maintain vital functions in the face of distress. These distresses could come from intentional/unintentional human activities, adverse weather conditions, pollution, diseases or death. Adaptation cuts across every sector of a nation/community and its success is dependent upon humans and non-humans.


Climate change mitigation on the other hand, has followed three major approaches since the adoption of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992. First of these approaches is the reduction of carbon dioxide emission using decarbonization techniques like renewable energy, energy efficiency and fuel switching. These techniques are well researched along with their associated risks. A second approach is the negative emissions technique. The negative emission technologies include carbon capture, storage and utilization, ocean fertilization/alkalinization, soil carbon sequestration, afforestation and reforestation, wetland construction and restoration, as well as using biomass in construction. The third major route, radiative forcing geoengineering revolves around temperature stabilization and/or reduction. This technique involves managing solar and terrestrial radiation using technologies like cirrus cloud thinning, stratospheric aerosol injection, space-based mirrors and marine sky brightening among several others. The radiative forcing geoengineering technique is still at the early stage and yet to make its way into policy frameworks. The conventional and most common mitigation strategy involves efforts on energy-related greenhouse gas emissions. One renewable energy option with long known history of ecosystem degeneration is hydro-power. Despite environmental impact assessments, each dam construction comes with irreversible adverse change to biodiversity. The World Commission on Dams reported that dams are capable of affecting terrestrial ecosystems and biodiversity, the flow system of the water, flow of nutrients/deposits and the migration of aquatic organisms. Dams have also been found to emit greenhouse gases. In light of this, mitigation strategies in hydropower generation are shifting towards dam removals and flow regulations. These are expected to improve migration, flow and reproduction of aquatic organisms. Biodiversity implications of other renewable energy sources include species invasion and native habitat destruction; habitat loss and bird mortality from wind energy. One of such renewable energy options is bioenergy. The production of bioenergy crops which involves the clearing of land and planting of non-native crop species. This process is capable of causing species invasion and habitat destruction. Invasive species is a plant or organism introduced into a new habitat that is capable of competing for limited resources, eventually leading to the extinction of organisms that are native to the environment. Habitat destruction and invasive species are considered to be the first and second largest causes of biodiversity loss globally.


Exploring an integrated approach to addressing climate change and associated biodiversity loss involves the promotion of synergistic actions. It involves developing measures and policies that will utilize the mutual gains and avoid adverse ecological reactions. Adopting responses that circumvent ecosystem feedbacks has become pertinent because these ecosystem feedbacks have been found to be capable of hastening global warming. The application and outcome of the integrated approach is dependent upon the location, the habitat and taxa involved as well as the scale of application. Putting the triple gains into consideration in all activities is not without challenges. Assessing and managing trade-offs and the estimation of these triple gains are some of the challenges of the integrated approach to addressing climate change and global warming.