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The report argues that GDP is an insufficient measure of national progress as it ignores costs to nature and society. By analyzing Indonesia's comprehensive wealth—which includes produced, human, natural, financial, and social capital—the study finds that while Indonesia's comprehensive wealth nearly tripled between 1995 and 2020, its GDP grew at a significantly slower rate, suggesting the country is not fully benefiting from its increasing assets.

Between 1995 and 2020, Ethiopia's comprehensive wealth grew at an average annual rate of 3.3%, with human capital serving as the primary driver. However, real per capita wealth declined in 2018/19 and 2019/20, coinciding with increasing environmental pressures on ecosystems and climate.

The report argues that GDP is an insufficient measure of national success because it ignores the depletion of assets and non-market well-being. By analyzing data from 1995 to 2020 for Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Trinidad and Tobago, the study demonstrates that comprehensive wealth (CW)—which includes natural, human, social, produced, and financial capital—reveals critical sustainability trends invisible to GDP. Key findings include the unsustainable depletion of fossil fuel assets in Trinidad and Tobago, the inefficient management of natural capital in Indonesia, and the critical need for increased agricultural productivity and wealth accumulation in Ethiopia.

The document examines natural capital trends in Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Trinidad and Tobago from 1995 to 2020, finding a general decline or stagnation in per capita market natural capital following the 2008 financial crisis. It highlights extreme dependencies, such as Ethiopia's reliance on agricultural land and Trinidad and Tobago's vulnerability due to the collapse of fossil fuel asset values. Non-market natural capital, including forest area and land per capita, is declining across all three nations, exacerbated by population growth and climate change. The authors advocate for moving beyond GDP toward comprehensive wealth measures and recommend green development policies, increased financial mobilization for nature-based solutions, and improved environmental statistical capacity.

The report finds that Ethiopia's real comprehensive wealth per capita grew by 103% between 1992/93 and 2019/20, primarily driven by human capital. However, this trend reversed in 2018/19 and 2019/20. While produced and market natural capital grew, financial capital declined into negative territory by 2019/20 due to high foreign debt. Non-market natural capital indicators show declining land area per capita and rising temperatures, signaling growing environmental pressures.

The report analyzes Indonesia's Comprehensive Wealth Index (CWI), which grew by an average of 4.3% annually between 1995 and 2020, driven primarily by human and produced capital. However, real per capita GDP grew more slowly at 2.8%, indicating a declining rate of return on wealth from 6.8% in 1995 to 4.8% in 2020. The study highlights inefficiencies in natural resource management and a lack of investment in renewable energy, suggesting that better asset management could have pushed Indonesia into the World Bank's upper-middle-income category by 2020.

The report finds that while Trinidad and Tobago's GDP grew between 1995 and 2020, its real comprehensive wealth per capita has declined by 36% since the 2008 global recession. This divergence is attributed to an over-reliance on fossil fuel assets, which have seen a nearly 98% loss in value over the study period. The analysis highlights a 'Dutch Disease' effect, where investment in the petroleum sector has crowded out agriculture, forestry, and fisheries. Human capital, the largest component of wealth, also declined by 29% from its 2008 peak. The report recommends that the government integrate comprehensive wealth measures into official policy-making to diversify the economy and ensure long-term sustainability.

The report evaluates the South African financial sector's capacity to adopt the TNFD framework, finding that while there is high recognition of the sector's impact on nature loss, there is a significant gap in the implementation of nature-related targets and expertise. It highlights the economic value of South Africa's ecosystem services and argues that private finance is essential to meet the Global Biodiversity Framework's '30x30' conservation target.

The project has been rated as 'Highly Satisfactory' for its overall outcomes, having successfully established the TNFD Secretariat and released the TNFD Recommendations in September 2023. While the project demonstrated high cost-effectiveness by leveraging approximately USD 1.85 million in GEF funding to unlock nearly USD 12.5 million in total financing, it faced operational challenges regarding inconsistent funding tranches from WWF-GEF to UNEP FI. The review recommends developing a new Theory of Change to shift focus from framework creation to maximizing uptake, building capacity in the Global South, and supporting the fulfillment of CBD Target 15.

The document examines the conflict between current global food systems and biodiversity, noting that while food systems depend on natural capital, they are the primary drivers of biodiversity loss. It highlights that USD 700 billion in annual government agricultural support often incentivizes harmful practices like the overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. To address this, the author analyzes three national case studies: the UK's transition to paying for 'environmental public goods', India's support for organic 'clusters' to improve soil health, and Brazil's ABC+ plan for climate adaptation and low-carbon agriculture. The paper concludes that achieving the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework's Target 18 requires better practical guidance for policymakers and greater coherence between international frameworks, including the WTO, the Paris Agreement, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The report presents a comprehensive four-component framework—Baseline and Ambition, Initiatives, Instruments, and Governance and Implementation—designed to help countries safeguard and restore natural capital. It details 14 subcomponents, ranging from natural capital assessments and the creation of a national vision to the deployment of regulatory and financial instruments. The framework emphasizes an iterative process, utilizing tools like marginal abatement cost curves for prioritizing initiatives and gap assessments to identify policy voids. It specifically highlights the economic risks of nature loss in Africa, such as the potential for nature-related risks to double expected financing losses in agriculture by 2030, while noting opportunities in the blue economy. The framework was piloted in Ghana with a wide range of government and private sector stakeholders.

The policy brief identifies a 'policy coherence gap' in the global green transition, where structural, long-term policies are being crowded out by unilateral industrial measures and short-term stimuli. It proposes that the G20 adopt a shared agenda to define and prioritize structural green reforms—such as natural capital investment and fossil fuel subsidy reform—to unlock concessionary financing and private investment for low-income and indebted countries. The authors present four options for G20 action, ranging from the status quo to a high-ambition multilateral framework that integrates debt-swap approaches and special drawing rights to facilitate a just transition.

The document outlines the necessity of a radical reduction in industrial emissions to meet the EU's 2050 climate neutrality goal, arguing that current production-based models must shift toward needs-based models that respect biophysical boundaries. It identifies critical gaps in the European Green Deal's progress on decoupling economic growth from resource use and proposes three primary levers for transition: mobilizing finance through regulatory environments, creating incentives for new business models, and utilizing targeted interventions for demonstration projects.

The document argues that the global biodiversity finance gap—estimated at an annual need of USD 536 billion by 2050—cannot be closed by grants alone. It proposes a blended finance approach that integrates information, regulatory, economic, institutional, and financial instruments to de-risk investments and catalyze private capital. Using the Green Climate Fund's (GCF) portfolio as a basis, the paper demonstrates how combining instruments (e.g., pairing carbon credits with parametric insurance), sequencing them along a maturity-concessionality gradient (e.g., the Amazon Bioeconomy Fund), and establishing long-term partnerships (e.g., Project Finance for Permanence) can create sustainable financial models for nature-based solutions.

The 2022 baseline assessment by WWF reveals that most asset managers fail to address seafood-related E&S risks, with an average score of 13% across 38 sub-indicators. While many acknowledge biodiversity risks generally, very few have actionable policies or specific expectations for seafood investee companies. The report recommends that asset managers formalize biodiversity risk statements into policies, regularly review seafood investments against sustainable blue economy principles, and develop SMART sustainability targets.

The report argues that corporate interests have systematically captured CBD processes to avoid stringent regulation and protect profits. It details how business lobby groups, such as Business for Nature and the WBCSD, use tactics like 'multistakeholderism', the promotion of vague terms like 'Nature Positive', and the advocacy for voluntary reporting over mandatory impact reductions to shape the Global Biodiversity Framework. The document highlights the role of the CBD Secretariat in facilitating this access and warns that the resulting framework fails to address the underlying economic drivers of biodiversity loss.

The report argues that large corporations and their lobbying groups have systematically co-opted the CBD and the GBF process. It details strategies such as 'revolving doors', privileged access to the CBD Secretariat, and the promotion of ambiguous terms like 'nature positive' and 'nature-based solutions' to replace binding regulations with voluntary reporting and self-certification. The document highlights the role of groups like Business for Nature and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) in steering the GBF away from addressing structural drivers of biodiversity loss.

The E4N partnership, a collaboration between the Green Economy Coalition, Capitals Coalition, Green Growth Knowledge Partnership, and WWF France, worked to make 'natural capital-based green economies' a global best practice. The partnership focused on creating tools for measuring nature's value, convening multistakeholder networks, and advocating for the inclusion of nature in economic decision-making. Key achievements include the development of the Green Economy Tracker, the establishment of Business for Nature, and the integration of natural capital into the EU Green Deal and African development finance. While the report notes a shift toward 'nature-positive economies,' it highlights persistent challenges in data quality and capacity, as well as a gap between government rhetoric and actual policy implementation during COVID-19 green recovery efforts.

The Rabobank Acorn Agroforestry Carbon Programme supports smallholder farmers in Zambia, Nigeria, and Kenya in transitioning to sustainable agricultural production through a technology-enabled carbon sequestration marketplace. By utilizing Payment for Ecological Services (PES) via carbon credits, the program aims to monetize natural capital, increase food security, and create green jobs. The pilot phase is currently underway, with carbon loans already disbursed and technical training provided to farmers. The first carbon credits trading cycle is expected to take place in three years.

The project focuses on integrating African perspectives into the TNFD framework through three workstreams: developing academic justifications for natural capital protection, piloting the TNFD framework with African financial institutions, and launching the African Natural Capital Alliance (ANCA). Initial efforts have included quantifying the impact of nature on loan book values to understand how physical and transition risks affect profits, noting that 23% of Africa's GDP depends on nature.