ClimateChange

Already, warming is reshaping the ranges of species, disrupting migration patterns, intensifying droughts and floods, and accelerating the collapse of habitats that billions of people and countless species depend on.

Protection and restoration of nature is also a vital part of the solution. Earth’s forests, grasslands, oceans, peatlands, and wetlands absorb around half of all human emissions every year. As these ecosystems are lost or degraded, that buffer weakens, releasing stored carbon and accelerating warming further. Stopping emissions is half the story. Protecting and restoring nature is the other half.

Birds are our compass. Widespread, highly responsive to environmental change and sharing habitats with millions of other species, birds are among the most powerful indicators of planetary health. When birds thrive, ecosystems are functioning. When they decline, it is a signal that the systems we all depend on are under stress.

How BirdLife is responding

Our Climate Change Programme combines cutting-edge science, policy advocacy and on-the-ground action across more than 120 countries to deliver climate solutions that work for nature and people. We work at every level, from grassroots community projects to national legislation and global policy processes, ensuring that local knowledge shapes international decisions, and that international commitments translate into real action on the ground.

Our work focuses on three interconnected priorities:

• Delivering nature-based solutions for climate mitigation and adaptation
• Ensuring a nature-positive transition to renewable energy
• Securing nature’s place in climate policy through a local-to-global movement

Banner image: © 2021 Fercast, Shutterstock

Local pastoralist at the Driefontein Grasslands. © Javiera Perez Ribalta

Delivering nature-based solutions for climate mitigation and adaptation

Together as a Partnership, BirdLife champions action that benefits people, nature and climate, with local-to-global impact. Nature-based solutions do not just protect wildlife— they solve the challenges facing local communities. 

Healthy ecosystems are among our most powerful tools for addressing climate change. With our 120+ Partners, we protect and restore forests, grasslands, wetlands and other vital habitats, generating benefits for carbon storage, water security, disaster resilience and local livelihoods simultaneously.

 For example, when we protect vital migratory bird stopover sites throughout the flyways, we ensure that conservation action delivers the greatest possible benefit for climate, biodiversity and communities at once. We apply rigorous standards to ensure that our interventions deliver genuine outcomes — and we work to connect locally-led conservation with the sustainable finance needed to make it last.

Ensuring a nature-positive transition to renewable energy

The world urgently needs clean energy, but not at nature’s expense. The anticipated growth of wind farms, solar installations and powerlines can cause enormous harm to biodiversity if sited without ecological consideration. We work with governments, developers and financial institutions to ensure that the renewable energy transition happens in the right places and in the right way.

Central to this is AVISTEP (Avian Sensitivity Tool for Energy Planning), a BirdLife-developed mapping tool that identifies areas of high sensitivity for migratory birds, helping governments and developers avoid key habitats and migration routes early in the planning process.

At the policy level, we coordinate the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) Energy Task Force, a multilateral platform that brings together governments, investors, the private sector and civil society to develop and promote best practice guidance for wildlife-safe energy infrastructure. Together, these tools and platforms help reduce risk for developers, protect migratory birds and other wildlife, and accelerate a clean energy transition that works for nature.

Securing nature’s place in climate policy through a local-to-global movement

Climate action will only succeed if nature is at its core. We advocate for integrating biodiversity into climate targets, national plans and international agreements, working across the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Ramsar and other multilateral frameworks to ensure climate-nature synergies are recognised and acted upon.

Critically, we do not stop at the global level. Through our Partnership of national organisations, we support Partners to translate international commitments into national policy and action, helping them engage in climate negotiations on behalf of their governments, contribute to the development and implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), and embed nature into national climate and biodiversity strategies.

We amplify grassroots voices in global decision-making — ensuring that Indigenous Peoples, local communities and civil society are heard where it matters most. We also build and steer influential coalitions that unite governments, NGOs, and the private sector around shared goals for nature and climate.