World Economic Forum has drawn the attention of the global business community to the critical relationship that exists between nature conservation and the state of the world economy.
In a video message released today, research findings show that it would cost the world just $140 billion a year to protect 30% of the planet from destruction. That’s less than what the world spends each year on video games and less than a third of what governments spend on subsidizing activities that destroy nature. This is also a fraction of the $10 trillion that was spent on Covid-19 packages in the first two months of the pandemic.
This highlights humanity’s broken relationship with nature with human activities gradually provoking the onset of the sixth mass extinction. Populations of mammals, birds and fish have declined an average of 68% since 1970.
While nature loss threatens to wipe half of the value off global GDP, investing in nature would deliver benefits outweighing the costs by 5:1 and generate $250 billion in annual economic output and $350 billion in eco-system services like health, food security and protection from extreme weather events.
By moving to a nature positive economy, businesses could be making an extra $10 trillion a year by 2030 and the world could generate 400 million jobs by 2030.
Research findings currently show that the world needs to protect 30% of nature to prevent the collapse of the natural world and economy.
