Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

The Urgency of Biodiversity Action

February 11, 2021

Download PDF

Report submitted as evidence to the independent Dasgupta Review, by Vivid Economics  The Urgency of Biodiversity Action compares the cost to the world’s governments of two strategies for achieving forest conservation goals by 2050: acting now or putting action off for a decade. 

It finds the answer is clear: we cannot afford to delay. 

  • Citizens worldwide will have to pay twice as much if policymakers delay global action by as little as ten years rather than acting immediately. 
  • If action is delayed, it may not be feasible to stabilise biodiversity globally – even at today’s depleted level – by 2050. The pace at which biodiversity and species are being lost is speeding up; the analysis finds any delay makes it even harder to restore nature and therefore less likely it will be economically and politically feasible. The global cost of food and materials production from 2021 to 2050 is lower under immediate action and higher if action is delayed, as a share of global-average household income 
  • Acting now will significantly reduce extinction rates of endemic species. Without taking more ambitious action than current global biodiversity policies involve, more endemic species are projected to go extinct in the coming 30 years than are estimated to have died out in the entire period between 850-1850 CE. Acting now can reduce this number by 25%. Such a reduction might be achievable even if we delay action – but it would double the cost. If action is both immediate and ambitious, there is an option to make a bigger reduction in extinction rates and would cost only two thirds as much as the delayed action
Sign up for the Nature Finance Newsletter

Newsletter - Popup

"*" indicates required fields

Name*
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.