The twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss are two of the greatest risks facing our ability to survive and thrive on this planet. Running alongside the UN General Assembly High Level Week, this event will explain the gravity of these crises, mobilize a range of actors to address them and explore how IUCN – including its patrons of nature – is convening actors, shaping policy and using science to solution. Climate change is already leading to increased temperatures, fires, floods and droughts, costing countless lives and damage to infrastructures and economies. Global commitments to large-scale changes to keep global temperatures to no more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels remain unclear and weak, despite scientific evidence suggesting that warming beyond this would result in potentially irreversible and catastrophic consequences consequences. Countries' commitments and monitoring of progress under the Paris Agreement indicate that we are not on target. Despite increasingly dire warnings from the world's best experts, we are still not moving fast enough either on the climate change mitigation fronts or on the adaptation fronts.