Beyond ‘Business As Usual’: Biodiversity Targets and Finance

Biodiversity underpins all economic activities through the provision of a range of ecosystem services, and it is experiencing dangerous and unprecedented declines due to the current model of economic development. The world’s ecosystems have declined in size and condition by 47% globally compared to estimated baselines, and the continued degradation of ecosystem services represents an annual loss of at least US$479 billion per year. With recent estimates stating that more than half of the world’s total Gross Domestic Product is moderately or highly dependent on ecosystem services, these declines in biodiversity are a signal that action needs to be taken to strengthen the global economy’s resilience.

This report, published by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Natural Capital Finance Alliance (NCFA), of which Global Canopy is a founding member, highlights the need for banks, investors and insurers to set firm targets to reduce biodiversity loss, for example ‘net positive impact’ across their activities, starting with nine critical sectors where financial players are exposed through their loans, investments or underwriting activities.

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