According to the UN report, significantly more money flows into the destruction of nature than into nature conservation. The United Nations is calling for a reversal.
If it were just a game for money and nature was competing against its exploitation, then the score would be: 1 point for Mother Nature and 30 points for overexploitation. Final score: 1 to 30.
But it’s not a game, it’s reality: for every US dollar that goes into preserving nature, 30 US dollars are invested into destroying it. This is the assessment of the United Nations Environment Program (Unep) in a report presented on Thursday in Nairobi. It is time to take countermeasures, they say. The report is in its fourth edition and, according to Unep, is based on improved data sets and methods for tracing financial flows, in this case for the year 2023.
Financial institutions, loans or investments play an important role in the preservation or destruction of nature, says Tina Lutz, forest and trade expert at Deutsche Umwelthilfe. “We need binding rules that ensure that environmental and human rights are not violated by their financial activities.”
The UN report shows: In 2023, investments in nature fell far short of their goal. So what the… Containing the climate crisisthe extinction of species and the destruction of ecosystems is necessary. That year it was almost $220 billion invested in nature conservation a large part from public budgets – 4 percent more than in 2022. And yet: 2.4 trillion US dollars flowed as subsidies to the destruction of nature – especially to fossil fuels or environmentally harmful agriculture.
Sustainable cultivation of coffee, palm oil or soy
The private investments that cause the destruction and degradation of nature are more than twice as high: 4.9 trillion US dollars. According to Unep, environmentally harmful funds flowed particularly into the utilities, energy, industry and raw materials sectors.
Financial institutions play an important role in the preservation or destruction of nature
Tina Lutz, German Environmental Aid
Unep concludes that annual nature conservation investments would have to increase to 571 billion US dollars by 2030 in order to achieve a turnaround – for example through sustainable investments Cultivation of coffeepalm oil or soy. That only corresponds to around half a percent of global economic output. For now, nature has lost to its exploitation. However, the score can still change.
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