The findings, published in the State of Finance for Nature 2026 report, underline a stark imbalance that threatens global biodiversity, climate goals and long\u2011term economic stability.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The report shows that although governments and businesses are increasing investments in conservation and nature\u2011based solutions, harmful financial flows far outweigh positive ones. Sectors such as utilities, industrials, energy and basic materials were identified as major drivers of environmental damage. The study also highlighted the scale of environmentally harmful subsidies in fossil fuels, agriculture, water, transport and construction.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you follow the money, you see the size of the challenge ahead of us,\u201d said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme. She warned that nature\u2011positive investments remain modest, while destructive investments and subsidies \u201care surging ahead\u201d. \u201cWe can either invest in nature\u2019s destruction or power its recovery; there is no middle ground,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Despite the imbalance, the report outlines a clear set of solutions capable of reversing environmental decline while delivering strong economic returns. These include expanding green urban infrastructure to reduce heat\u2011island effects, embedding biodiversity protections into transport and energy projects, and producing emissions\u2011negative building materials.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The study calls for a \u201cbig nature turnaround\u201d, urging governments to phase out harmful subsidies, redirect damaging investments, and dramatically scale up funding for nature\u2011positive sectors. It stresses that protecting and restoring ecosystems is not only essential for climate resilience and food security but also offers significant economic opportunities.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The UN says a global transformation in finance is now essential to ensure markets align with environmental goals rather than undermine them.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–UN\/ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":22799,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44,26],"class_list":["post-22798","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The United Nations (UN) is calling for sweeping financial reforms after new data revealed that for every Dollar invested in protecting nature, thirty Dollars continue to be channelled into activities that degrade the environment. \n","published_date":null,"news_description":"The United Nations (UN) is calling for sweeping financial reforms after new data revealed that for every Dollar invested in protecting nature, thirty Dollars continue to be channelled into activities that degrade the environment. ","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25976,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22798\/revisions\/25976"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=22798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}