Finding economic value in nature beyond carbon

The briefing highlights that ecosystem services are worth over USD 150 trillion annually, while biodiversity loss costs the global economy more than USD 5 trillion per year. It asserts that the economic costs of nature destruction often exceed the benefits of exploitation, citing examples like EU nitrogen pollution and the Gulf of Mexico's dead zone. The text emphasizes that nature-related risks are transboundary, where deforestation in the Amazon or Southeast Asia impacts regional rainfall and coral reefs. It concludes that investing in biodiversity is significantly more affordable than the energy transition to net-zero, though a funding gap of approximately USD 830 billion per year remains.

• Ecosystem services are estimated to be worth more than USD 150 trillion annually, which is approximately 1.5 times the global GDP in 2023. Conversely, biodiversity loss is currently costing the global economy over USD 5 trillion per year, a figure comparable to the estimated cost for Europe to transition to renewable energy by 2050.
• Major global economies have significant financial exposure to nature loss, with the US, EU, and China collectively having a combined absolute GDP exposure of USD 7.2 trillion. A World Economic Forum analysis indicates that USD 44 trillion of economic value generation—nearly half of global GDP—is moderately or highly dependent on nature.
• The economic costs of destroying nature often outweigh the gains from exploitation. For instance, nitrogen pollution from agricultural runoff in the EU is estimated to cost between EUR 70 billion and EUR 320 billion annually, which is more than double the value fertilisers add to farm income. In the Netherlands, the environmental and health impacts of livestock farming cost EUR 9 billion a year, three times the sector's added value.
• Nature loss creates transboundary economic shocks. Deforestation in Brazil and Bolivia altered rainfall patterns that intensified a 2015-2016 megadrought in Colombia, causing energy prices to rise nearly tenfold because hydropower provides over 70% of Colombia's energy. Additionally, sediment from Southeast Asian logging impacts 41% of global coral reefs, which otherwise protect USD 109 billion in GDP per decade from erosion and flooding.
• The collapse of essential ecosystem services—specifically pollination, marine fisheries, and timber provision—could lead to annual global GDP losses of USD 2.7 trillion by 2030. Pollinators alone contribute between USD 235 billion and USD 577 billion to global agricultural production annually, and a 'pollinator collapse' is valued at a mid-point range of USD 1 trillion.
• Conserving biodiversity is significantly more cost-effective than building a net-zero emissions energy system, with the required annual investment in biodiversity being only 15% of the energy transition cost. However, there is a funding gap for biodiversity conservation of approximately USD 830 billion per year.

APA

Team, Z. (2024). Finding economic value in nature beyond carbon. Zero Carbon Analytics. https://zerocarbon-analytics.org/insights/briefings/finding-economic-value-in-nature-beyond-carbon/

Chicago

Team, ZCA. Finding economic value in nature beyond carbon. Zero Carbon Analytics, 2024. https://zerocarbon-analytics.org/insights/briefings/finding-economic-value-in-nature-beyond-carbon/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Team |first1=ZCA |title=Finding economic value in nature beyond carbon |publisher=Zero Carbon Analytics |date=4 October 2024 |url=https://zerocarbon-analytics.org/insights/briefings/finding-economic-value-in-nature-beyond-carbon/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{team2024finding, author = {Team, ZCA}, title = {{Finding economic value in nature beyond carbon}}, institution = {Zero Carbon Analytics}, year = {2024}, month = oct, url = {https://zerocarbon-analytics.org/insights/briefings/finding-economic-value-in-nature-beyond-carbon/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }