For Every Dollar Spent to Preserve Nature, $30 Goes Towards Harming It: UNEP Report
Meanwhile, nature-based solutions received investment of $220 billion in 2023.
Chennai: Despite a climate disaster looming large over the globe, the spending towards sustainability is just a fraction of the environmentally harmful investments. For every $1 the world invests in protecting nature, it spends $30 on destroying it, finds a report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
The UNEP report, which uses data for 2023 finds that $ 7.3 trillion is financed in nature-negative investments. Of this $4.9 trillion comes from private sources highly concentrated in a few sectors like utilities, industrials, energy, and basic materials. Environmentally harmful subsidies to fossil fuels, agriculture, water, transport and construction accounts for $2.4 trillion.
Meanwhile, nature-based solutions received investment of $220 billion in 2023. Of this close to 90 per cent came from public sources.
Private investment in such solutions amounted to only $23.4 billion – 10 per cent of the investments. Business and finance are yet to invest in a big way in nature-based solutions despite the growing awareness of dependencies, risks, and opportunities related to nature.
The investments need to grow 2.5 times to $571 billion per year by 2030. This constitutes just 0.5 per cent of global GDP of 2024.
The report calls for a major shift in global financing of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) and phasing out harmful investments to deliver high returns, reduce risk exposure, and enhance resilience
“If you follow the money, you see the size of the challenge ahead of us. We can either invest into nature’s destruction or power its recovery – there is no middle ground,” said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP. “While financing nature-based solutions crawls forward, harmful investments and subsidies are surging ahead. This report offers leaders a clear roadmap to reverse this trend and work with nature, rather than against it.”
