As leaders, CEOs and financiers wrap up their deliberations in Davos, with the World Economic Forum (WEF) concluding on Friday, a new UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report has delivered an uncomfortable truth about the global economy’s real balance sheet. While governments and businesses increasingly speak the language of ‘nature-positive growth,’ the money still overwhelmingly flows in the opposite direction.
For every US$1 invested in protecting nature, the world spends US$30 financing its destruction, according to The State of Finance for Nature 2026 report released by UNEP. Based on 2023 data, the report estimates that US$7.3 trillion in global finance flows are nature-negative, directly or indirectly driving ecosystem degradation, while investments in Nature-based Solutions (NbS) amount to only US$220 billion. That is a ratio of more than 30:1, highlighting what UNEP calls an urgent need for a “Big Nature Turnaround”.
The warning comes at a time when geopolitics is destabilising climate and biodiversity diplomacy, and global capitals are recalibrating priorities amid wars, inflation and the politics of energy security. The report notes that Official Development Finance (ODF) budgets have been under heavy pressure in 2024 and 2025 due to geopolitical conditions, potentially constraining future flows for nature and climate action, a squeeze that developing economies are likely to feel sharply even as climate impacts accelerate.
UNEP’s latest estimates show a financing system still built for extraction, not restoration. Of the US$7.3 trillion in nature-negative finance flows, US$4.9 trillion comes from private sources, concentrated heavily in a few high-impact sectors such as utilities, industrials, energy, and basic materials, including fertilisers and agricultural inputs. Another US$2.4 trillion comes from public environmentally harmful subsidies, including support to fossil fuels, agriculture, water, transport, construction and fisheries.
“If you follow the money, you see the size of the challenge ahead of us. We can either invest into nature’s destruction or power its recovery. There is no middle ground,” said Inger Andersen, executive director of UNEP. “While financing nature-based solutions crawls forward, harmful investments and subsidies are surging ahead. This report offers leaders a clear roadmap to reverse this trend and work with nature, rather than against it.”
Even the apparent “good news” comes with a warning. In 2023, NbS finance reached US$220 billion, a five per cent increase since 2022 but the scale still remains tiny against both investment needs and the ongoing damage financed by economic activity. A striking feature of the current landscape is that nature-positive finance is still overwhelmingly carried by governments and public institutions. Nearly 90 per cent of NbS finance in 2023 came from public sources, reflecting rising domestic and international support. But private finance remains marginal accounting for just US$23.4 billion, or about 10 per cent of total NbS investments.
UNEP estimates that NbS investments need to grow 2.5 times to reach US$571 billion per year by 2030, a target the report says would constitute just 0.5 per cent of global GDP. The report frames NbS as the “maintenance bill” for natural infrastructure, necessary to stabilise economies dependent on ecosystems and biodiversity.
For India, the report’s core warning has immediate relevance. As climate impacts intensify, from prolonged heat waves and erratic monsoons to floods, droughts, water stress and land degradation, the country’s development choices and public spending priorities will increasingly determine whether it locks into nature-negative pathways or builds resilience through nature-positive investments. India’s rapid urbanisation and infrastructure expansion, including transport corridors, new housing and industrial growth, also makes it especially vulnerable to the kind of nature-negative capital flows highlighted in the report. Nature-based Solutions, including urban greening, watershed restoration, mangrove protection, restoring degraded forests and wetlands, and climate-resilient agriculture — can play a major role in reducing disaster risk while protecting livelihoods, particularly for communities dependent on forests, coasts and common lands.
The report also references India’s National Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) as part of domestic efforts linked to financing afforestation and ecosystem restoration, underscoring the role of national public finance mechanisms in scaling NbS. But it also flags the need to strengthen effectiveness and integrity so that increased funding translates into durable ecological recovery and social benefits on the ground.
“Effort by CAMPA to support conservation action is an important model worthy of replication globally due to its reach, diversity and on-the-ground impacts,” said Balakrishna Pisupati, country head of UNEP India.