The world spends about 30 times more destroying nature than protecting it, according to the United Nations Environment Programme’s new “State of Finance for Nature” (SNF) report. The report finds roughly US$7.3 trillion in global investments damage nature, including funding for high-emissions energy infrastructure and pollution-intensive manufacturing.
Two-thirds of those harmful investments come from private sources concentrated in utilities, industry, energy and materials sectors. The remainder is public spending and includes damaging government subsidies for fossil fuels, agriculture, transport and construction. In contrast, nature-positive investments reached only $220 billion in 2023 — about 30 times less than harmful flows.
The SNF authors note nearly half the global economy depends significantly on nature, yet governments, businesses and finance are eroding “our collective nature bank.” The report cites a collapse in wildlife — an estimated 73% decline in wildlife populations since 1970 — undermining ecosystem services such as pollination, clean water and soil fertility that underpin economies. UNEP executive director Inger Andersen warned: “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.”
The report’s central prescription is to redirect finance into nature-based solution (NbS) assets. NbS include investments that limit climate change and restore ecosystems, such as reforestation for carbon sequestration and sustainable land management to halt land degradation and desertification. The report estimates NbS could generate up to $30 in benefits for every $1 invested.
As part of a roadmap to a nature-positive economy, SNF sets targets and actions to help governments and private actors deliver a “big nature turnaround” aligned with the Global Biodiversity Framework adopted by the UN in 2022, which aims to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030 and achieve full recovery by 2050. Concretely, the authors say NbS investments need to grow 2.5 times to reach $571 billion annually by 2030, while harmful investments must be phased out and repurposed.
Private finance provided only a small portion of nature-positive funding in 2023, but the report notes growing momentum in biodiversity offsets: 37 countries now legally require some form of biodiversity compensation for certain developments. While such compensation mechanisms face criticism for potentially legitimizing harm, authors acknowledge they currently play a role in offsetting damage that otherwise would go uncompensated.
The SNF urges embedding nature across key economic sectors and unlocking a multitrillion-dollar “nature transition economy.” Corporations can lower costs and boost resilience by investing in resource-efficient technologies and adopting regenerative and circular business models. Opportunities extend beyond forestry, infrastructure and agriculture to products and services that harness natural processes — for example, bacteria-infused concrete that self-heals cracks with limestone, extending building lifespans and cutting construction emissions.
Practical examples cited include greening urban areas to reduce heat-island effects, roadside greening and wildlife corridors in transport planning, and emissions-negative building materials. The report also champions regenerative agriculture to rebuild soil health and biodiversity, countering industrial systems that rely heavily on chemicals and degrade soils.
Public spending trends in 2023 were mixed: investment in biodiversity and landscape protection rose by 11%, but spending on sustainable agriculture, forestry and fishing fell. Overall, nature-positive public spending remains modest compared with environmentally harmful state subsidies, which the report estimates exceed US$2 trillion annually.
“While financing nature-based solutions crawls forward, harmful investments and subsidies are surging ahead,” Andersen said. The SNF report provides a roadmap for leaders to reverse that trend by repurposing harmful finance, scaling NbS, and integrating nature into policy and corporate decision-making to support a durable recovery of ecosystems and the economies that depend on them.
Edited by: Jennifer Collins