In 2023, public and private initiatives around the world channelled a combined US$220-billion toward biological conservation. <\/p>\n
It sounds like a great win for nature \u2013 until one stacks it up against the US$7.3-trillion spent that same year on activities that directly harm global biodiversity, including US$2.4-trillion in government subsidies to industry.<\/p>\n
The 33-to-1 imbalance and the question of what to do about it is the focus of an intergovernmental report relating business activity to biodiversity loss and recovery.<\/p>\n
The report is the latest effort by IPBES, also known as the United Nations biodiversity panel, an independent body which plays a similar role marshalling expert knowledge related to biodiversity that the IPCC \u2013 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change \u2013 does in the climate domain.<\/p>\n
The Saya de Malha Bank is an underwater haven of biodiversity, desperately in need of regulation<\/a><\/p>\n Experts behind the report laid out their findings at a news briefing on Monday after a week-long meeting of the organization in Manchester, Britain. They said their aim is to provide a road map that business leaders and policy-makers can use to instill sustainable practices throughout the economy and prevent the degradation of ecosystems that imperils everyone \u2013 including companies.<\/p>\n \u201cThe current economic system and financial system that we have is not set up to maintain or to have sustainability of biodiversity, which then also is leading to unsustainability of business itself,\u201d said Stephen Polasky, a co-chair of the report and a professor of environmental economics at the University of Minnesota.<\/p>\n While it should come as no surprise that business activity can have an impact on ecosystems and that the loss of benefits that nature provides, including clean air and water, can be bad for business, the new report examines the connection in a comprehensive way, including legal, financial, cultural, technological and educational avenues for change.<\/p>\n As with all IPBES reports, the result is a consensus document with approval from each of the more than 140 member countries that make up the panel, including all the world\u2019s leading economies but for one. The lone exception is the United States, after President Donald Trump signed an executive order last month withdrawing from IPBES, along with a slew of other international agencies. <\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n The three co-chairs of a sweeping assessment on business and biodiversity, from far left: Stephen Polasky (USA), Ximena Rueda (Columbia) and Matt Jones (UK).Supplied<\/p>\n Dr. Polasky said recent political developments have heightened the challenge the world faces in dealing with a worsening global biodiversity crisis, but added that he was heartened by the view among participants at the meeting that a plan of action is needed.<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody recognizes the urgency of this problem and that businesses have a huge role to play,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n