Structural Shift of Global Consumption-Based Biodiversity Threats from Land to Climate

Current global biodiversity conservation targets focus predominantly on terrestrial habitat protection and reducing deforestation. However, these targets may overlook the climate-biodiversity nexus and the structural shift of global biodiversity threats. This study constructs a multistressor biodiversity footprint (BF) assessment framework to quantify the biodiversity impacts driven by land use, carbon emissions, and water consumption. Using the EXIOBASE 3.9.6 database and the LC-IMPACT model, we traced temporal changes in consumption-based BFs across 49 economies for 2000, 2010, 2020, and 2022. Results show that while land-use BF remained the largest contributor to the global total BF, its relative contribution declined from 55.4% to 46.9%. Concurrently, the contribution of carbon-emission BF increased from 23.8% to 29.5% and exhibited more widespread cross-border displacement compared to traditional land-use impacts. Sectoral analysis further reveals that the key sectoral drivers of biodiversity impacts are transitioning from agricultural and forestry sectors to carbon-intensive energy and construction sectors. These findings highlight the need to complement land-focused territorial conservation with climate-related biodiversity governance. They also point to the importance of shared responsibility for biodiversity conservation in global supply chains.