In many ways, the IUCN Programme 2017–2020 represents a blueprint for realising many of the ambitions of the post-2015 agenda. The Programme embraces and assimilates the new momentum generated by the 2015 agreements and captures them in a programme of work that exploits IUCN’s strengths, taking advantage of the Union’s knowledge and reach to move agreements into concrete action. Moreover, the programme breaks away from the once-widespread misconception that global challenges must each be addressed separately, and instead recognises that environmental, economic and even political concerns often share direct and indirect drivers, and can similarly benefit from common solutions.