Earth Today | Starved of investment
Report reveals nature’s desperate need for money
Published:Thursday | January 29, 2026 | 12:11 AM
IN THE race for financial resources, nature is losing.
That is according to findings from the just released 2026 edition of the State of Finance for Nature report of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which has revealed that for every US$1 spent on nature, US$30 is spent destroying it.
“Nearly half our global economy significantly depends on nature, and yet governments, business and finance continue to erode our collective nature bank account,” reads a section of the report titled Nature in the red: Powering the trillion-dollar nature transition economy.
“Business-as-usual locks us deeper into further degradation of ecosystems, but governments, corporates, consumers and investors have the power to redirect flows and unlock resilience, equity and growth. In 2023, finance directly harmful to nature reached US$7.3 trillion, while investments in nature-based solutions (NbS) amounted to only US$220 billion, a ratio of more than 30:1,” it added.
According to the report, 2023 saw some US$7.3 trillion directed to activities that “directly damage nature”, including “US$2.4 trillion to public subsidies for fossil fuel, agriculture and water use” and another “US$4.9 trillion to private capital concentrated in sectors, such as utilities, industrials, energy and basic materials”.
Finance flows to NbS, meanwhile, stood at US$220 billion in 2023, with public finance registering at some eight times higher than private finance at US$197 billion and US$23.4 billion, respectively. On the public finance side, financing went into biodiversity (US$82.2 billion); sustainable agriculture, forestry and fisheries (US$66.3 billion); pollution and abatement (US$15.1 billion); wastewater management (US$15 billion); environmental policy and other (US$11.6 billion) and official development finance (US$6.8 billion).
Some US$7.1 billion of the US$23.4 billion from private financing went into biodiversity offsets while US$5.1 billion went into bonds and funds; US$4.6 billion into certified commodity supply chains and US$4.2 billion into ecosystem services. The remaining US$2.4 billion was accounted for by compliance and voluntary carbon credits, private finance mobilized by official development finance and philanthropy.
POSITIVE MOMENTUM
Still, even with the disparity in financing, the report said that the numbers reflect some increases in finance flows compared to earlier years.
“ Public domestic expenditure is the largest source of NbS finance at US$190 billion in 2023, up four per cent from 2022. Expenditure on biodiversity and landscape protection grew significantly, up 11 per cent. Official Development Finance for NbS continues to increase, reaching US$6.8 billion in 2023, a 22 per cent increase from 2022 and 55 per cent higher than in 2015. Official Development Finance remains a critical enabler for scaling NbS in developing countries,” noted the report.
The report’s 11 authors come from the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management, the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, UNEP, and UNEP/Global Canopy, with technical contributions, guidance, data and peer review provided by representatives from several other entities globally.
The numbers also reflect improvements in private financing for NbS.
“ Private NbS finance of US$23.4 billion in 2023 remains small in absolute terms but shows positive momentum. While modest compared to investment needs, these flows demonstrate strong potential. With the right enabling environment, standards and risk-sharing instruments, private capital could scale rapidly and become a game changer in closing the NbS finance gap. Mobilising private finance is essential to build a trillion-dollar nature transition economy,” the report explained.