Natural capital is a high-return investment in resilience

The briefing presents an economic case for investing in natural capital, asserting that nature-based solutions can provide over 50% of the cost-effective global mitigation needed for a 2°C pathway. It highlights that wetlands and forests generate trillions in annual ecosystem services, far exceeding the costs of their protection and the adaptation finance needs of developing countries. The text notes that while rehabilitating nature and transforming food systems can yield returns between 6.8 and 51 times the investment, current financial flows remain misaligned, with significant funding still directed toward harmful environmental subsidies.

• Land-based solutions, combined with demand-side measures like waste reduction and dietary changes, could provide 50% or more of the cost-effective global mitigation required over the coming decades to limit warming to 2°C, with the highest potential in tropical developing regions of Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
• Protecting and restoring nature can reduce the intensity of weather- and climate-related hazards by at least 26%, which could lower losses in developing countries by up to 25% by 2030, resulting in savings of at least USD 104 billion compared to a business-as-usual scenario.
• Wetlands provide annual ecosystem services valued at USD 39 trillion, which is 36.7% of the 2023 global GDP. The median annual value of these services is approximately 40 times the annual adaptation finance needed in developing countries (USD 215 billion).
• Forests provide annual ecosystem services worth over USD 7.5 trillion, which is 100 times the annual adaptation finance required by smallholder farmers (USD 75 billion) to secure the global food supply. The cost to halt deforestation and achieve sustainable management (USD 150-460 billion per year) represents only 2-6% of these non-market benefits.
• Transforming global food systems could generate annual net benefits of USD 5 to 10 trillion (5-10% of 2023 global GDP). With annual investment costs between USD 200-500 billion, the return on investment is estimated between 11 and 51 times the initial outlay.
• There is a misalignment in financial flows: in 2023, annual forest investment was USD 84 billion, while potentially damaging environmental subsidies reached approximately USD 406 billion.

APA

Bentley-McKune, J. (2025). Natural capital is a high-return investment in resilience. Zero Carbon Analytics. https://zerocarbon-analytics.org/insights/briefings/natural-capital-is-a-high-return-investment-in-resilience/

Chicago

Bentley-McKune, Joanne. Natural capital is a high-return investment in resilience. Zero Carbon Analytics, 2025. https://zerocarbon-analytics.org/insights/briefings/natural-capital-is-a-high-return-investment-in-resilience/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Bentley-McKune |first1=Joanne |title=Natural capital is a high-return investment in resilience |publisher=Zero Carbon Analytics |date=18 November 2025 |url=https://zerocarbon-analytics.org/insights/briefings/natural-capital-is-a-high-return-investment-in-resilience/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{bentleymckune2025natural, author = {Bentley-McKune, Joanne}, title = {{Natural capital is a high-return investment in resilience}}, institution = {Zero Carbon Analytics}, year = {2025}, month = nov, url = {https://zerocarbon-analytics.org/insights/briefings/natural-capital-is-a-high-return-investment-in-resilience/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }