The article in brief
● A new report shows that countries around the world are spending far more money damaging nature than protecting it.
● Businesses and economies rely on healthy ecosystems, but natural resources are rapidly depleting.
● In a new report, researchers propose many measures to reverse the trend and make taking nature into account.
– The most important message is that the global economy has so far grown at the expense of nature and is now starting to have a negative impact on the global economy and financial stability. Companies play a very important role in reversing this trend, says Lisen Schultz, ecologist and researcher at the Stockholm Resilience Center at Stockholm University.
Together with around 80 other researchers from a total of 35 different countries as part of IPBES, the biological diversity equivalent of the UN climate panel IPCC, she has produced a comprehensive report on how companies and biodiversity influence each other. The report is based on thousands of studies and the work took about three years.
The starting point is the very strong scientific support that all economic activities are fundamentally dependent on healthy ecosystems and rich biological diversity. Nature gives us food, raw materials, fresh water and clean air to breathe. Even companies that do not directly use natural raw materials are dependent on ecosystem services that, for example, mitigate the consequences of extreme weather events and secure water supplies.
But it’s catching on strong imbalance. According to the report, global capital production per capita has increased by 100 percent since 1992. Over the same period, capital in the form of natural resources has declined by 40 percent.
One explanation is that the world’s countries and companies spend a total of about 7,300 billion dollars (equivalent to 65,000 billion crowns) per year on activities that damage nature. This includes, for example, supporting unsustainable industrial fishing and environmentally harmful agricultural methods. The budget for environmental efforts, on the other hand, is only about 3 percent of this amount, about 220 billion per year, and only about 1 percent of companies worldwide report how their operations affect biodiversity.
– We didn’t have to rely on nature to make our financial decisions. Economic theory developed from the view that nature is infinite and that nature’s resources should always be in abundance, says Lisen Schultz.
The authors of the report name one of them Hundreds of measures and methods that, with the support of research, could turn the tide.
– The message is that economic development is possible in harmony with the limits of nature. But then we have to change the framework conditions so that it becomes natural to take biological diversity into account. It requires a change in regulations, standards, technology and knowledge, says Lisen Schultz.
Among other things, bonus systems, subsidies and financial flows must be adjusted so that they take greater account of the impact on biodiversity. The report also provides advice on how companies can improve traceability of raw materials and map their supply chains.
“A variety of methods have emerged, so this assessment is intended to help companies find their way in this jungle,” says Lisen Schultz.
She adds that just over 20 years ago, she took part in a UN mission that produced a similar report on how the world’s biodiversity is being affected by unsustainable production systems.
– Now the research situation has become even clearer. This is a good foundation of knowledge for everyone working for more sustainable development in business, politics and civil society. From what I understand, reports like this are slowly but surely making their way into decision-making spaces.
Facts.IPBES
● IPBES, the Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, is an independent intergovernmental organization that compiles research on biodiversity, just as the UN climate panel IPCC reviews research on climate change.
● IPBES was founded in 2012 by 94 governments.
● The organization has around 150 member countries.
● IBES provides politicians and other people in power with objective scientific assessments of the state of knowledge about the Earth’s biological diversity, ecosystems, and the benefits that nature offers us – and about ways to protect and use these natural resources in a sustainable way.
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