World’s banks are funding biodiversity loss and ecosystem destruction

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nature

According to the new analysis recently released by portfolio.earth in 2020, the world’s largest banks invested more than $2.6 trillion (€2.2 trillion) in the form of loans and other credit in primary sectors driving and “bankrolling” biodiversity loss and ecosystem destruction on an unprecedented scale. As Mr Peter van der Werf (senior engagement specialist at Robeco) underlines, this evidence shows that banks globally still need to step up their game and develop an approach to protect biodiversity.

The main aim of portfolio.earth report is to envision and design a world in which projects can only raise capital when they have demonstrated that they will contribute meaningfully and positively to restoring the planet’s bounty and a safe climate for all.

Also business groups are slowly beginning to take note of the biodiversity crisis, as demonstrated by the annual Global Risks Report of the World Economic Forum (WEF) published this year where, for the first time, environmental risks dominated perceived business threats and biodiversity loss was listed among the five most impactful and most likely risks in the next decade.

The report, therefore, calls for banks to disclose and radically reduce their impact on nature instead of financing activities such as fossil fuel extraction, and calls on governments to stop protecting banks’ role in biodiversity destruction and rewrite the rules of finance to hold banks liable for the damage caused by their lending.

Fort further information visit: https://www.europeanscientist.com/en/environment/banks-are-funding-biodiversity-destruction/