Rio Conventions Pavilion (RCP)

The final day of the RCP at UNFCCC COP21 convened on 10 December 2015, in Paris, France. The day was held under the theme ‘Synergies and Tradeoffs in Land-based Climate Mitigation and Biodiversity.’ Two sessions took place, namely on: synergies and tradeoffs in land-based climate change mitigation and biodiversity; and, the contribution of research-action clubs for agriculture and forestry sectors: economic expertise and innovation for climate.

In the afternoon, three films were also screened. The first film, titled ‘Youth Climate Report,’ was produced and directed by students, and provided an overview of climate change challenges. The second film, ‘Moana Rua,’ depicted the urgency of addressing climate change for Pacific Islanders. The third film, ‘Ethiopia Rising’ showed the story of land restoration projects in the Tigray region of Ethiopia.

The morning session included presentations from representatives of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and the CBD Secretariat. Both highlighted the opportunity to find solutions at the nexus of climate change and biodiversity. The presentations that followed provided modeling results, referring to different land-based mitigation scenarios, and looking at the tradeoffs and potential impacts of these scenarios on biodiversity and land-use change.

The afternoon session included presentations and discussions with representatives of French agriculture and forest clubs, who described their involvement across a network of organizations, working in the forestry and land sectors. These two clubs came together to address climate change, by sharing knowledge and learning from each other. The presentations focused on initiatives in France and wider Europe, and discussed cases of dairy farming, agriculture, reforestation and offsetting. Examples were also provided to demonstrate existing approaches to address climate change mitigation within the agriculture and forestry sectors.