The Transition to an Economy That Values Nature

The policy brief examines the systemic failure of global financial systems to value nature, noting that nature-related risks worth $5 trillion are not priced into investment decisions. It advocates for a multi-pronged approach to bridge the nature finance gap, including meeting the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) targets of $20 billion annually by 2025 and $200 billion by 2030. The author argues that while carbon markets are a necessary short-term tool, they are flawed for long-term nature finance due to issues with permanence and additionality. Instead, the brief promotes the scaling of the $4 trillion global bioeconomy, the use of debt-for-nature swaps, and the implementation of payments for ecosystem services (PES), such as levies on digital sequence information and Brazil's Tropical Forests Forever Facility. It emphasizes that these transitions must be led by global south governments and indigenous peoples to ensure equitable governance and avoid 'sub-prime' transactions.

• Current financial systems fail to account for nature's value, with an estimated $5 trillion in nature-related business risks remaining unpriced and damage to nature costing the global economy approximately $2.7 trillion annually.
• Agricultural subsidies are a primary driver of environmental harm, with 87% of such subsidies being price distorting or driving damage to nature and health; total agricultural subsidies across 54 countries grew to $851 billion between 2020 and 2022.
• There is a significant gap in direct nature finance; the KMGBF requires international flows to developing countries to reach $20 billion annually by 2025 and $200 billion from all sources by 2030, but current public finance is insufficient.
• Carbon markets are viewed as a short-term necessity rather than a long-term solution because 'technology-neutral' rules discriminate against nature-based solutions, particularly regarding the difficulty of guaranteeing permanence and additionality for forest protection.
• The global bioeconomy, currently valued at $4 trillion, offers a pathway to boost prosperity in nature-rich regions if it operates within environmental limits and respects the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities.
• Alternative non-market finance mechanisms include debt-for-nature swaps, which could potentially release $100 billion for 49 highly indebted countries, and new PES-like schemes such as levies on digital sequence information (DSI) and the Brazilian Tropical Forests Forever Facility.
• The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) illustrates the tension between conservation and development, where the international finance available for forest protection (around $300 million) is dwarfed by the estimated $650 billion value of potential oil and gas extraction.

APA

Davis, R. (2024). The Transition to an Economy That Values Nature. Forum on Trade, Environment, & the SDGs. https://lyrical-cormorant.files.svdcdn.com/production/assets/images/Publications/TESS-Policy-Brief-The-Transition-to-an-Economy-that-Values-Nature.pdf?dm=1728048435

Chicago

Davis, Ruth. The Transition to an Economy That Values Nature. Forum on Trade, Environment, & the SDGs, 2024. https://lyrical-cormorant.files.svdcdn.com/production/assets/images/Publications/TESS-Policy-Brief-The-Transition-to-an-Economy-that-Values-Nature.pdf?dm=1728048435.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Davis |first1=Ruth |title=The Transition to an Economy That Values Nature |publisher=Forum on Trade, Environment, & the SDGs |date=September 2024 |url=https://lyrical-cormorant.files.svdcdn.com/production/assets/images/Publications/TESS-Policy-Brief-The-Transition-to-an-Economy-that-Values-Nature.pdf?dm=1728048435 |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{davis2024transition, author = {Davis, Ruth}, title = {{The Transition to an Economy That Values Nature}}, institution = {Forum on Trade, Environment, \& the SDGs}, year = {2024}, month = sep, url = {https://lyrical-cormorant.files.svdcdn.com/production/assets/images/Publications/TESS-Policy-Brief-The-Transition-to-an-Economy-that-Values-Nature.pdf?dm=1728048435}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }