The Concept of "Nature Positive" Addressed in the 17th Issue of the Ecosystem Review
The 17th issue of Ecosystem Review, prepared by TSKB Economic Research, has been published. In the new issue, the concept of nature positive is scrutinized with its development, wealth and financing dimensions. The issue emphasizes that transition to a nature-positive economy could create business opportunities worth USD 10.1 trillion by 2030. It is also stressed that nature-positive finance, with a focus on topics such as the protection of healthy and resilient ecosystems, ecosystem regeneration and sustainable use of natural resources, will require significant changes in funding structures.
The 17th issue of the Ecosystem Review, published quarterly by TSKB Economic Research, addresses the concept of nature positive in terms of development, wealth and finance. The issue emphasizes that the ignorance of the relationship between nature and economic growth by the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) account has emerged as an important problem.
In a world where ecosystem services are taken for granted, pricing these services may pose problems. On the other hand, problems such as water scarcity and stress, deforestation, land degradation or pollution pose risks for many companies operating in various sectors. In this issue, TSKB Economic Research underlines that the ambiguity in the classification of which financing supports nature regeneration is one of the major problems in measuring nature-positive outcomes.
Here are key highlights from the 17th issue of the Ecosystem Review:
- Studies on the relationship between nature and economic growth demonstrate that more than half of global GDP has a moderate or high dependence on nature.
- Even a partial collapse of ecosystem services could cripple global GDP growth by USD 2.7 trillion annually by 2030.
- Adding natural capital to the GDP calculation, we realize that, between 1990 and 2014, we experienced an average growth of 1.8% in our assets defined as wealth, while the growth in the GDP calculation stood at 3.4% during the same period.
- Studies show that per capita renewable natural capital (agricultural land, forests, marine life) has declined by more than 20% in the last 25 years. The decline in non-renewable natural capital (oil, natural gas, coal, metals and minerals) is 2.5% between 1995 and 2020.
- Debt-for-nature swaps reached USD 2.3 billion in 2023, while the nature-based carbon credit market shrank by 53% between 2021 and 2023.
- Around 55% of global GDP depends on nature and healthy ecosystems. This leads to risks for nature reaching USD billion levels for companies.
- Biodiversity finance, defined by BloombergNEF (BNEF) as "financial flows for nature conservation and restoration", reached USD 208 billion annually. On the other hand, the nature negative financing is around USD 7 trillion annually.
- Public spending accounts for USD 173 billions of biodiversity financing, the vast majority of which is domestically financed. International aid is estimated at USD 10.2 billion.
The Ecosystem Review is available here.
