State of Finance for Nature 2026 report launches

The State of Finance for Nature 2026 report calls on governments, financial institutions and businesses worldwide to “get the wheel turning” on a transformative shift in how we value and invest in nature. 

With the global economy significantly dependent on nature, the report highlights a critical reality: current practices are rapidly depleting our “collective nature bank account”, threatening economic stability and human well-being. It outlines how the private sector is overwhelmingly financing nature destruction instead of working with nature, while governments are facing fiscal constraints to finance nature protection.

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The report finds:

• There is a 30:1 ratio in favour of nature destructive investments – for every US$1 invested in protecting nature, US$30 is spent destroying it.
• The world spends US$220bn to protect nature while US$7.3tn is spent destroying it.
• Of the US$7.3tn in nature-negative finance flows, US$4.9tn is from private sources highly concentrated in a few sectors: utilities, industrials, energy, and basic materials. Meanwhile, public subsidies to fossil fuels, agriculture, water, transport and construction contribute US$2.4tn.
• US$220bn is invested in nature-based solutions, with some 90% from public sources, reflecting a steady rise in domestic and international support for nature-based solutions. However, just 10% comes from private investment, indicating business and finance have yet to invest at scale in nature-based solutions despite the growing awareness of dependencies, risks, and opportunities related to nature.

The report urges a fundamental change in mindset. It calls for investment in nature-based solutions to increase 2.5 times to US$571bn a year by 2030 to meet the goals of global agreements, including the Convention on Biological Diversity, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.

Building on the findings of the 2023 report, which identified almost US$7tn annually in government subsidies and private investment (around 7% global GDP) had a direct negative impact on nature, the 2026 report outlines how this vital transition can be achieved and sets out clear pathways for the transformation of finance flows. The report introduces the ‘Nature Transition X Curve’, a framework designed to help policymakers and businesses sequence reforms and scale up high-integrity nature-based solutions across all sectors of the economy. The framework charts a path for phasing out harmful subsidies and destructive investment in entrenched systems of production, while simultaneously scaling up nature-based solutions. It offers specific options to public and private sector businesses across the supply chain.

“Our economies, our lives – our everything – is completely dependent on nature. Yet we all continue to finance its destruction at a furious pace. We must ‘get the wheel turning’, as the new State of Finance for Nature 2026 report puts it, toward a more sustainable future. This year’s report builds on the 2023 findings, which revealed that $7tn per year in government subsidies and private investment were having a direct negative impact on nature. For the first time, we now have clear pathways for the much-needed transformation of these financial flows. While current investment in nature-based solutions and activities to promote nature-positive outcomes remains too low, momentum is building. So, we call on governments, the financial sector, and businesses to accelerate this shift and build on the progress we are beginning to see. This is self-evidently in their self interests – on all but the most myopic of views.

Niki Mardas, Executive Director, Global Canopy

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The State of Finance for Nature 2026 report is part of the State of Finance for Nature report series developed in partnership between the UN Environment Programme, Global Canopy and the ELD Initiative. Global Canopy Founder and Senior Advisor Andrew Mitchell is an author of the report.