Mainstreaming nexus approaches in both international and domestic policy must become the norm, breaking down persistent silos that separate climate, biodiversity and development agendas.

With South Africa’s G20 presidency now concluded, the imperative for bold multilateral leadership at the nexus of climate, biodiversity and development is more pressing than ever. This year’s Think 20 (T20) Summit in Johannesburg, convening leading global think tanks and policy experts, underscored the urgency – and opportunity – of advancing a climate-biodiversity-development nexus approach for a just, sustainable future.

Climate and Biodiversity: An Inseparable Nexus

Climate change and biodiversity loss are not parallel crises – they are intertwined. Climate change disrupts weather patterns, raises sea levels and alters ecosystems, threatening the survival of species and the stability of human societies. In turn, the degradation and loss of biodiversity undermine the climate’s regulatory functions: healthy forests, wetlands, grasslands and oceans absorb carbon, support livelihoods and provide resilience against disasters. Tackling these challenges in silos is not only inefficient – it is counterproductive. This core message emerged powerfully from a T20 breakfast roundtable hosted by SAIIA and the French Development Agency: solutions must be integrated, recognising and leveraging the synergies between climate action, ecosystem restoration and inclusive development. Conservation and restoration are mutually reinforcing; adaptation and mitigation must go hand in hand.

Integrating Social Dimensions and Equity

For South Africa and other developing countries, as well as for Europe and France, solutions must not only protect nature but also address social realities, including poverty, inequality and gender disparities. Policies that ignore the lived experiences of vulnerable communities will fall short. A strong sustainability approach must put people at the centre, ensuring that climate and nature action promotes social equity, recognition of women’s roles and shared prosperity.

Nature as an Asset for Development

A resilient future requires seeing nature not as a cost but as a productive economic asset. The bioeconomy depends on healthy ecosystems – water, soil, pollinators and more. Pricing asymmetries that undervalue natural capital distort decision-making and contribute to resource depletion.

WWF released an open letter in June 2025 urging the G20 Sustainable Finance Working Group to embed nature within the updated G20 Sustainable Finance Roadmap. The letter emphasised that “a nature-positive economy should also bring more equitable rewards to stewards of natural capital for managing resources sustainably and build resilience to future economic challenges posed by climate change and biodiversity loss.” This call reflects the urgency to incorporate nature into the finance sector’s roadmap as both an ethical imperative and economic necessity, recognising that the global economy is deeply dependent on and impacts nature.

Bridging Data and Policy Gaps

Despite a wealth of technical solutions and robust science, implementation continues to lag, stymied in part by data gaps and a failure to fully harness the knowledge embedded in ecosystem service research. Policymakers must better understand how nature underpins human wellbeing, economic stability and community resilience. Scaling up what is already documented and using data to craft science-based national policies is not a “nice-to-have”; it is essential for meaningful progress. Policy dialogue, grounded in evidence and consensus-building, is central to closing this gap.

Closing the Nature-Finance Gap

No serious progress on the nexus is possible without closing the finance gap for nature. Presently, climate finance is overwhelmingly targeted at mitigation, with only a fraction reaching adaptation and nature-positive solutions. Accelerating blended finance, incentivising private sector investment, and expanding innovative tools, such as biodiversity credits, are urgent imperatives. Such initiatives are encouraging and need to speed up. In 2024, out of the $9-billion of AFD climate finance, 40% was dedicated to adaptation and 15% to nature-based solutions. At the 2025 Finance in Common Summit in Cape Town (co-hosted by DBSA and AFD), discussions focused on biodiversity credits, with the International Development Finance Corporation (IDFC) proposing the creation of a “Nature Finance Working Group” within the Finance in Common System (FiCS) to coordinate nature and biodiversity-related initiatives.

The T20 Communiqué calls for action on the climate-biodiversity nexus, urging integration with bioeconomy principles across G20 strategies for sustainable finance, food systems and energy transitions. The communiqué’s call for “new and additional” and innovative finance must be met with concrete pathways that align with global multilateral commitments and feature robust monitoring and reporting.

A Call to Action

Following South Africa’s G20 Presidency in 2025 and COP30 in Belém, there is an opportunity – and an urgent imperative – for multilateral fora and international partners to chart ambitious ways forward.

Mainstreaming nexus approaches in both international and domestic policy must become the norm, breaking down persistent silos that separate climate, biodiversity and development agendas. Future efforts should invest in robust knowledge and data-sharing platforms, making the benefits of ecosystem services clear and actionable for the public, businesses, and policymakers alike. Social equity must be advanced by ensuring that poverty eradication, gender equality, and community resilience are at the core of every climate and nature initiative.

Policies and economic reforms that elevate nature as an asset, through natural capital accounting and progressive regulatory shifts, will be essential for genuine progress. Crucially, the international community must mobilise and scale up finance for adaptation, conservation and innovation in the bioeconomy, leveraging both public and private resources for the systemic transformation needed to meet our collective climate and development goals.

The science is clear, the tools are available, and the stakes for people and planet are too high to delay. With vision and resolve, South Africa’s G20 presidency focus can catalyse a new era in the global response, supported by a coalition of the willing and by all Public Development Banks as gathered in the Finance in Common System – one that truly advances the climate-biodiversity-development nexus for current and future generations.

Research by Kirsten Pearson

The views expressed in this publication/article are those of the author/s and do not necessarily reflect the views of the South African Institute of International Affairs