Ernst & Young, Microsoft and Earth Knowledge Leverage IPBES Global Assessment Findings in New Joint Report on Financial Services for Conservation, Sustainability and Biodiversity

Description of Impact(s) (English Only) Leveraging findings from the IPBES Global Assessment (2019), a new report by EY, Microsoft, and Earth Knowledge warns that the financial industry runs the danger of doing enormous harm to both itself and businesses across the world if it doesn't utilize its "huge influence" to halt behaviors that hurt the environment. The report states that the largest investment banks in the world provided $2.6 trillion in loans and underwriting services related to the destruction of nature in 2019 alone. The analysis, however, claims that there is still hope. It highlights large, unrealized profit prospects for the financial services industry related to biodiversity, sustainability, and conservation. The financial industry may benefit from an estimated $800 billion annual biodiversity funding gap by fostering nature's resilience, productivity, and adaptation. If the world is to reach its climate change, biodiversity, and land degradation commitments, this investment must triple in real terms by 2030 and quadruple by 2050.