The Paris Agreement under the UNFCCC was adopted in December 2015 and entered into force on November 2016. This agreement was the outcome of the negotiations launched in 2011 at the 17th Conference of the Parties in Durban to develop a legal instrument applicable to all Parties to cut greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions and to be implemented from 2020.

In the years leading up to the Paris Agreement, IUCN consistently provided scientific and technical inputs to Parties and stressed that while biodiversity and ecosystems are threatened by climate change, their conservation, restoration and sustainable management generate significant and practical nature-based solutions to climate change. These cost-effective no-regret solutions can contribute to both mitigation and adaptation objectives while also yielding other important economic, social and environmental co-benefits, thus enabling Parties to simultaneously contribute to other internationally agreed frameworks.

The Paris Agreement explicitly acknowledges the need to promote and ensure environmental integrity, and calls on Parties to conserve and enhance GHG sinks and reservoirs, including biomass, forests and oceans as well as other terrestrial, coastal and marine ecosystems.