Biodiversity is as important as climate protection
‘The loss of biodiversity is one of the greatest threats to the economy and society,’ says Stephen Polasky of the University of Minnesota, co-chair of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). This is also stated in the latest ‘Business and Biodiversity’ report by the Biodiversity Council, which was compiled by 79 experts over a period of two years.
The report describes the main cause of the dramatic loss of species diversity as follows: ‘What is profitable for businesses often leads to a loss of biodiversity. And what is good for biodiversity and society is often not profitable.’
Even today, 54 years after the first report by the Club of Rome on the limits to growth, the global economy continues to thrive on the exploitation of nature. The system is working against itself, according to the report: ‘Better stewardship of nature is not an option for companies, but a necessity.’ However, there has been almost no incentive for companies to do anything for the environment. And history teaches us that voluntary commitments are not enough for the economy.
In 2023, private and public financial flows with a direct negative impact on nature are estimated to have amounted to 7.3 trillion US dollars. In contrast, only about 220 billion US dollars in public and private funds flowed into activities that contribute to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. That is more than 30 times more money for environmental destruction than for environmental conservation. This is one of the reasons why we are currently wiping out up to 180 animal and plant species every day. But nature needs several thousand years to create a new species.
The report’s conclusion: Only through political intervention can the way be paved for an ecological economy. Companies alone cannot achieve this.
However, a report by the Copernicus Climate Service from 2025 shows that biodiversity and climate change are interrelated and must not be played off against each other. According to the report, climate change is becoming increasingly apparent in Europe as well. This is evident from the increasing number of forest fires, storms, extreme precipitation and heat waves. In 2024 alone, they caused well over 18 billion euros in damage.
The latest warning from the Federal Environment Agency: particulate matter and nitrogen oxide levels in half of German cities are significantly above the prescribed limits. The consequences: thousands of people in this country die of heart attacks, cardiovascular diseases or suffer from dementia and Alzheimer’s. In the medium term, this will make healthcare costs in this country unaffordable.
This will also become apparent in the USA, where President Trump has just further dismantled climate protection. The president talks about ‘beautiful clean coal’, which is to continue to receive financial support. Hopefully, many voters will draw the right conclusion in the autumn elections in the USA. And that means voting Trump out of office and shutting down coal-fired power plants soon.
Once again, it is clear that climate protection and species conservation come at a cost, but no climate protection and no species conservation will cost us our future and, even more so, the future of our children and grandchildren. And everything is connected.
Source
Franz Alt 2026 | Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator
