The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment identified climate change as a dominant driver of future biodiversity loss and indicated that it will adversely affect key development challenges, including the provision of clean water, energy services, and food; maintenance of a healthy environment; and conservation of ecological systems, their biodiversity, and associated ecosystem goods and services.

Many of the major impacts of climate change on ecosystems and people are occurring through changes in the water cycle. Climate change exacerbates other threats caused by human activity. Climate change will likely require some changes to biodiversity conservation and management approaches to ensure their effectiveness over the longer term. The resilience of biodiversity to climate change can be enhanced by reducing non-climatic stresses in combination with conservation, restoration and sustainable
management strategies.