We worked with EuroNatur to assess the economic costs of biodiversity inaction in the EU, quantifying the investment needed to halt biodiversity loss, and identifying opportunities to mobilise and redirect funding towards nature-positive outcomes.
Biodiversity loss is increasingly recognised as a systemic economic risk, with the World Economic Forum ranking it, and ecosystem collapse, among the top five global risks by both likelihood and impact in 2026. Healthy ecosystems provide essential services, including food and raw materials, climate regulation, water purification, pollination, recreation, and tourism.
The EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 sets out Europe’s ambition to halt biodiversity loss and identifies increased mobilisation of finance as central to achieving it. The Strategy calls for at least €20 billion per year to be unlocked for biodiversity from EU, national, and private sources. However, the scale of investment needed to meet Europe’s biodiversity objectives is greater. What’s more, some existing public spending may actively contribute to biodiversity loss.
Understanding both the scale of the financing gap and the economic consequences of continued biodiversity loss is therefore important for identifying where public and private finance can have the greatest impact.
This report examines the potential economic returns from increased investment in biodiversity, the extent of environmentally harmful public spending, and identifies opportunities to close the biodiversity financing gap and ensure that EU public funding delivers the greatest economic and environmental return.
Our analysis estimates an annual EU biodiversity financing gap of €18.7 billion, alongside €34.4–48.9 billion per year in EU spending that may be actively harmful to biodiversity. We also found that biodiversity investment can generate substantial economic benefits. International evidence suggests that each euro of investment is expected to deliver eight euros of economic benefit.
Applying this return on investment to the scale of the funding gap presented in our report equates to around €150 billion of economic benefit a year and delivery of around 560,000 jobs a year.
The findings showcase the economic case for treating biodiversity finance as an investment rather than a cost. They provide policymakers with evidence and practical recommendations for closing the financing gap, reforming environmentally harmful spending, and directing public and private finance towards changes that are positive for nature and the global economy.
