Nearly $7 trillion of public and private finance each year supports activities that directly harm nature – some 30 times the amount spent on nature-based solutions annually, according to this report published by the UNEP.

The State of Finance for Nature annual report series tracks finance flows to nature-based solutions (NbS) and compares them to the finance needed to maximise the potential of Nature based Solutions to help tackle climate, biodiversity and degradation challenges. For the first time, this edition estimates the scale of nature-negative finance flows from both public and private sector sources globally. Nature based Solutions (NbS) provide critical investment opportunities as they are cost-effective and provide multiple benefits. The report focuses on current levels of NbS implementation and finance and how much finance for NbS is needed to reach specific Rio targets – limit climate change to 1.5°C, protect 30 per cent of land and sea by 2030 (30x30 target) and reach land degradation neutrality (LDN) by 2030. The NbS finance gap is the difference between current finance flows and the Rio-aligned scenario NbS finance needs.