The challenges of biodiversity loss, climate change and sustained human wellbeing are tightly connected. They share underlying direct and indirect drivers, they interact, and biodiversity loss and climate change have complex impacts that diminish people’s quality of life, especially vulnerable communities1. The COVID-19 pandemic has made these fundamental interconnections a stark reality. A sustainable global future for people and nature remains possible but requires rapid, radical and transformative societal change. The window to limit damage from biodiversity loss and climate impacts is rapidly closing, so solutions need to be deployed rapidly. There is growing recognition that this will require that climate and biodiversity policies are addressed jointly, rather than independently. One opportunity to jointly address the climate and biodiversity crises is the 30 percent area-based conservation target by 2030 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)/Global Biodiversity Framework known as the ‘30x30’ initiative which is the global target to protect or conserve 30% of land and ocean by 2030. DRC has committed to this target through its membership in the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People and provides both an urgent challenge and an opportunity to demonstrate the power of an integrated approach.