Biodiversity and food Safeguard
$7.3 trillion flows annually into nature-destroying businesses
Alarming report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services published
The IPBES “Biodiversity and Business” report from February 8, 2026, confirms the environmental organization nature solidarity’s criticism of the destructive agricultural policies of Germany and the EU.
Press release from 2026-02-11
According to the “Biodiversity and Business” report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) from February 8, 2026, around $7.3 trillion—that is 7,300 billion—flowed globally in 2023 into economic activities that harm nature and biological diversity. In contrast, only $220 billion was available for the protection and sustainable use of biodiversity—just 3% of the destructive financial flows.
For Matthias Wolfschmidt, Managing Director of nature solidarity, these figures reveal the structural failure of global economic and agricultural policy: “The exploitation of nature and environmental destruction are still the dominant business model of the global economy.”
Around two-thirds of the harmful financial flows, or approximately $4.9 trillion annually, come from private investments. “That is bad enough,” says Wolfschmidt, “but even worse is that about $2.4 trillion comes from public funds, such as the largely environmentally harmful agricultural subsidies of the EU. It is crazy to use citizens’ tax money to slowly but surely destroy their very foundations of life.”
Like the IPBES, nature solidarity criticizes the lack of effective financial incentives and sanctions to correct this misallocation of capital. Companies often do not price in the negative impacts of their actions on biological diversity. Instead, government subsidies and political frameworks frequently promote business models that favor the exploitation of nature and environmental destruction—supported by intensive lobbying from business associations.
nature solidarity therefore calls for the consistent application of the “polluter pays principle,” meaning the inclusion of environmental damage repair costs in the cost calculations of all economic actors, as well as the abolition of all environmentally harmful public subsidies.
EU agricultural policy also requires a fundamental realignment. nature solidarity calls for incentives to protect biodiversity, climate, and soil, including through EU-wide pricing of pesticides, mineral fertilizers, and agricultural CO₂ emissions, as well as through environmental tariffs to protect domestic producers.
Source:
IPBES Report “Biodiversity and Business” (The Impact and Dependence of Business on Biodiversity and Nature’s Contributions to People), see in particular “Key Message 2” (p. 5)
https://ipbes.canto.de/v/IPBES12Media/album/QH93L?viewIndex=0&display=fitView&column=document&id=cbeurbkq7t5vpc6fs2v9kbp75a&origin=classic
Contact:
Matthias Wolfschmidt, Executive Board
+49 (0)151 58178205
presse@nature-solidarity.org