An opportunity to end the money pipeline to global deforestation and achieve the UK’s climate and nature targets

Global Witness calls for the UK to amend the Financial Services and Markets Bill 2022 to introduce mandatory forest-risk commodity due diligence for financial actors and a statutory objective for regulators on nature and net zero. The briefing highlights that the UK financial sector is a major financier of global deforestation, with an estimated $16.6 billion provided to 20 agri-businesses implicated in deforestation between 2015-2020, and faces up to £200 billion in risk exposure in Brazilian beef and soy and Indonesian palm oil supply chains.

• The UK financial sector is a significant source of funding for global deforestation, with banks and asset managers providing an estimated $16.6 billion between 2015-2020 to 20 agri-businesses linked to deforestation, generating approximately $192 million (£147 million) in profit.
• The UK financial sector faces substantial risk exposure, including up to £200 billion in Brazilian beef and soy and Indonesian palm oil supply chains, while over £300 billion in UK pension funds are invested in high deforestation risk entities.
• Global Witness proposes two amendments to the Financial Services and Markets Bill 2022: first, mandatory forest-risk commodity due diligence for financial actors to align them with the Environment Act; and second, a new statutory objective for regulators regarding nature and net zero to replace the current, ineffective 'regulatory principle'.
• The briefing asserts that current regulatory principles on sustainable growth have failed, as billions in UK finance continue to flow into nature-destructive projects, and warns that delayed climate action could cost UK banks more than £340 billion by 2050 according to the Bank of England.

APA

Global Witness (2022). An opportunity to end the money pipeline to global deforestation and achieve the UK’s climate and nature targets. https://globalwitness.org/documents/122/An_opportunity_to_end_the_money_pipeline_to_global_deforestation.pdf

Chicago

Global Witness. An opportunity to end the money pipeline to global deforestation and achieve the UK’s climate and nature targets. 2022. https://globalwitness.org/documents/122/An_opportunity_to_end_the_money_pipeline_to_global_deforestation.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Global Witness |title=An opportunity to end the money pipeline to global deforestation and achieve the UK’s climate and nature targets |date=September 2022 |url=https://globalwitness.org/documents/122/An_opportunity_to_end_the_money_pipeline_to_global_deforestation.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{globalwitness2022opportunity, author = {{Global Witness}}, title = {{An opportunity to end the money pipeline to global deforestation and achieve the UK’s climate and nature targets}}, institution = {Global Witness}, year = {2022}, month = sep, url = {https://globalwitness.org/documents/122/An_opportunity_to_end_the_money_pipeline_to_global_deforestation.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }