15 November 2025, Belém, Brazil (IUCN) — At the 2025 UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Belém, global leaders, experts and partners convened under the ENACT Partnership to discuss the Plan to Accelerate Solutions (PAS) for Biodiversity Adaptation and Resilience. 

The workshop gathered representatives from governments, Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs), financial institutions, civil society and the private sector to chart the next phase of global cooperation on nature-positive climate solutions under this PAS. 

Co-organised by the ENACT Partnership with the Governments of Egypt and Germany as Co-Chairs, IUCN and partner initiatives, the session marked a key milestone in operationalising the PAS—an ambitious roadmap to scale nature-positive, water-resilient climate action through 2028 and accelerate the Global Climate Action Agenda. 

Soha Taher, Undersecretary of International Cooperation at the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency, highlighted the Partnership’s origins, noting that “ENACT was born from a shared vision for climate and nature.” 

Ali Raza Rizvi, Director of IUCN’s Global Climate Change and Energy Transition Team, emphasised the significance of a joined-up approach: “Biodiversity-blind adaptation will lead to maladaptation, and vice versa—everything needs to come together. ENACT provides a great platform to take this work forward in an integrated manner.” 

Turning knowledge into action: Implementing the plan to accelerate solutions 

With COP30 serving as a pivotal moment to translate commitments into concrete action, the PAS Workshop explored the transformational shifts needed to meet 2030 climate, biodiversity and land degradation targets using nature-focused approaches. 

The PAS strengthens biodiversity adaptation by embedding risk-informed, inclusive and evidence-based approaches into climate and development planning. It aims to place healthy ecosystems at the centre of adaptation strategies, ensuring that biodiversity itself can withstand accelerating climate pressures. 

Najma Mohamed, PhD, Head of Nature-based Solutions at UNEP-WCMC, stressed the urgency of this approach, noting that people “are not experiencing the climate crisis in siloes—they are experiencing all impacts at once.” She underscored that adaptation must therefore also ensure “that nature itself is able to adapt to climate impacts,” and that impact measurement must go beyond prioritisation: “Our ambition doesn’t stop at identifying priorities; we want to understand how we reach the outputs—and we want to measure impact.” 

Four pathways for change 

Participants reviewed the proposed outputs to overcome systemic barriers, particularly in relation to inclusive decision making, financing mechanisms, risk management, and technology, presented under this PAS. In doing so, they shared their knowledge and experiences to support the different priority pathway 

1. Scaling climate–ecosystem risk data: Integrating biodiversity metrics into adaptation planning 

Key outputs reviewed:  

• Integrate ecosystem risk data into national adaptation planning in 60-80 countries. 
• Develop and deploy a biodiversity–climate risk screening toolkit for governments.  

Led by Najma Mohamed, PhD, Head of Nature-Based Solutions at UNEP-WCMC, participants agreed that integrating climate–ecosystem risk data into NDCs, NBSAPs, NAPs and investment decisions is essential for early and coordinated action on ecosystem degradation. Countries shared practical barriers—limited institutional capacity, fragmented scientific cooperation and insufficient political prioritisation of ecosystem data. 

Examples from Malaysia, East Africa and Brazil highlighted both promising models and persistent gaps. Brazil’s MapBiomas was noted as a national reference, though participants called for risk monitoring aligned with the Global Goal on Adaptation and stronger metrics to guide national planning. 

2. Policy coherence and ecosystem safeguards: Ensuring a nature-positive climate transition 

Key outputs reviewed:  

• Implementation of nature-positive food systems at landscape level supported by NDC Food Forward Initiative tools and guidance 
• FWC member countries have included targets for ecosystem restoration and/or in their national strategies (e.g., NBSAPs, NDCs, LDNs) by COP30 and by 2030 implement the targets 
• Strengthen policy alignment across Rio Conventions through coordinated guidance on integrating biodiversity and climate priorities in NDCs, NAPs, and NBSAPs N4C 
• Develop global NbS reporting, coordination and acceleration mechanisms for climate and biodiversity action 
• Provide operational guidance and tools for designing and implementing NbS for climate adaptation  

Led by Sylvie Wabbes-Candotti, Resilience Advisor at FAO Emergencies and Resilience Office and UNFCCC Non-State Actor (NSA) Focal Point on Adaptation and Resilience, participants emphasised that policy alignment across climate, biodiversity, land-use and water sectors is essential to achieve restoration and protection goals under the Global Biodiversity Framework. Strengthening coherence between NDCs, NAPs and NBSAPs—and embedding ecosystem safeguards into regulatory and planning instruments—was identified as a priority.

Discussions stressed the need for shared narratives and cross-ministerial language that bridges persistent silos. The Freshwater Challenge, Food Forward and the Peatland Breakthrough were cited as examples of global initiatives that can guide harmonised implementation. ENACT, N4C and NAbSA tools were highlighted as immediate support mechanisms that can help countries operationalise coherence. 

3. Financing for scaling investment in Biodiversity Adaptation 

Key outputs reviewed: 

• Make NAPs investable through aligned risk analytics, valuation methods, and financing architectures FINI
• Nature Finance Metrics Guidance, Develop and operationalize a biodiversity adaptation finance toolbox 
• Unlock nature-based solutions finances in Brazil 
• Mobilize capital for restoration and Bioeconomy   

Led by Milena Martins, Institutional Relations & Partnerships Director at Climate Ventures, participants highlighted that unlocking public and private finance is critical to closing the adaptation finance gap. Priorities included making National Adaptation Plans investable, developing robust valuation systems, and expanding blended finance instruments such as resilience bonds, landscape funds and debt-for-nature swaps. 

Emerging nature-tech solutions and biodiversity adaptation finance toolkits—such as those developed by Climate Ventures and the Nature Investment Lab—were presented as promising innovations. However, major gaps remain, including limited data-sharing, the scarcity of scalable blended finance mechanisms, and the need to shift investor narratives to recognise biodiversity adaptation as central to climate resilience. 

4. Rights and co-design: Formalizing inclusive governance for biodiversity resilience 

Key outputs reviewed: 

• Develop & implement common framework for inclusive participation 
• Establish gender-responsive and IPLC-participation indicators in national MEL systems  

Led by Nonette Royo, Executive Director at the Tenure Facility, participants reaffirmed that adaptation outcomes are only durable when co-designed with Indigenous Peoples, local communities (IPLC), women and youth. Strengthening governance frameworks that secure land and resource rights, participation and equitable benefit-sharing was identified as fundamental. 

Youth and Indigenous-led monitoring innovations—such as those shared by the World Food Forum Youth Assembly and the Pawanka Fund—demonstrated how intergenerational knowledge transfer is being operationalised. Participants called for stronger IPLC representation within the UNFCCC process, noting existing mechanisms under the CBD cannot substitute for meaningful participation on the climate side. 

Building a shared roadmap for the future 

A Facilitated Integration Dialogue, led by Alfredo Redondo, Nature Lead of the Climate High-Level Champions Team, brought together insights from all four groups. Redondo underscored the importance of continued collaboration, stating that “it is important that all of you exchange—and keep exchanging—in the next steps of this process to operationalise the PAS through 2028, including enhanced finance, capacity-building, policy coherence and rights-based governance”. 

Participants committed to advancing the PAS collectively, emphasising coordination across sectors and the continuous integration of biodiversity resilience into national and global frameworks. 

In his closing remarks, Ali Raza Rizvi reinforced the Partnership’s long-term ambition: “We aim to create cohesion across policy and action.” 

About the ENACT Partnership and the PAS 

The ENACT Partnership (Enhancing Nature-based Solutions for an Accelerated Climate Transformation) unites governments, UN agencies, civil society and private actors to scale implementation of Nature-based Solutions for climate, biodiversity and sustainable development goals. 

ENACT leads the Plan to Accelerate Solutions (PAS) for Biodiversity Adaptation and Resilience, driving and connecting actors for breakthrough implementation aligned with the Global Stocktake, the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA), and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. 

By 2028, the PAS aims to integrate biodiversity and ecosystem resilience across national and global frameworks—turning the ambition of a nature-positive, climate-resilient world into measurable reality.