INTRODUCTION
Climate change, ecosystem degradation, and biodiversity loss are deeply interlinked challenges, where fragmented and sector-specific approaches often lead to limited or even counterproductive outcomes.1Transversality provides an integrated approach that connects sectors such as environment, water, energy, agriculture, and health to address these challenges holistically rather than in isolation. It enables coordinated policy and action across systems, ensuring that climate responses simultaneously advance environmental sustainability and biodiversity conservation. When applied at the local level, this approach becomes particularly powerful, as communities are at the frontline of climate impacts and are key actors in managing natural resources, restoring ecosystems, and driving sustainable practices. Local action, therefore, becomes the operational bridge that connects broader climate goals with tangible outcomes in ecosystem restoration, resilience building, and biodiversity conservation.
This integrated approach is increasingly supported by global scientific and policy discourse. The IPCC’s AR6 Working Group II report stresses ecosystem-based adaptation and mitigation as vital for tackling climate risks, including biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation2, while the IPBES’s Nexus Assessment warns that disconnected governance accelerates biodiversity decline across biodiversity, climate, food, water, and health systems, urging coordinated action3. Similarly, the UNEP promotes nature-based solutions (NbS) to concurrently address climate change, ecological degradation, and societal needs like water security4. In this context, approaches such as rewilding, landscape restoration, and community-led conservation illustrate how local urban interventions can generate multiple co-benefits, including carbon sequestration, improved ecosystem services, water security, and sustainable livelihoods bridging global ambitions with on-ground resilience yielding economic-ecological benefits.
OBJECTIVE
The session aims to demonstrate how transversality can be operationalized as an integrated policy and practice framework to address climate urgency through locally driven action. The dialogue will generate actionable insights for advancing coordinated, cross-sectoral, and inclusive policy approaches that bridge global climate ambitions with on-ground implementation. It will further contribute to strengthening resilient, nature-positive development pathways aligned with broader sustainable development priorities.
For more information please contact-
Ms. Shweta Tyagi
Chief Functionary
India Water Foundation
Email: shweta.tyagi@indiawaterfoundation.org
Mobile: +91 9899819074