Governments Need to Redirect Funds to Protect Nature, Study Says

Governments globally are providing at least $1.8 trillion per year that’s contributing to the destruction of ecosystems, climate change and species extinction, according to research from a group called the B Team and Business for Nature.[fn]Though attributing The B Team and Business for Nature as the source of this information, the Bloomberg article is focused on the analysis done by Earth Track on environmentally harmful subsidies.[/fn]

The report provides an estimate for what it calls “environmentally harmful subsidies” that are being made available to industries led by fossil fuel, agriculture and water companies. For example, about $640 billion of public support is going annually to fossil fuels.

“Harmful subsidies must be redirected towards protecting the climate and nature,” said Christiana Figueres, a member of the B Team and former executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention of Climate Change. “We have never lived on a planet with so little biodiversity.”...