We need billions to protect biodiversity, yet the EU is spending billions destroying it

A new report by EuroNatur, prepared by Eunomia, The Cost of Biodiversity Inaction: What it Means for the EU Economy (summary available here), shows that investing in nature is not only an environmental necessity but also a major economic opportunity. The study finds that closing the EU's biodiversity funding gap could deliver €150 billion in annual economic benefits and support an additional 560,000 jobs. However, despite these potential gains, the EU still faces an annual biodiversity funding gap of almost €19 billion, with current investment falling far short of what is needed to implement the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030.

At the same time, €34–49 billion of EU spending may actively harm biodiversity through subsidies that contribute to habitat loss, ecosystem degradation, and pressure on species. This is roughly twice the size of the biodiversity funding gap.

The loss of biodiversity endangers not only nature, but also the EU economy. Healthy ecosystems are vital for key sectors such as agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and water management. This makes protecting nature essential for Europe's long-term resilience. Therefore, the choice between nature and the economy is a false dichotomy: both need healthy ecosystems to thrive in a liveable future. 

A key way of closing the funding gap would be to redirect harmful subsidies to finance biodiversity. EuroNatur therefore calls for subsidies that harm biodiversity to be investigated and reformed, for biodiversity to be more strongly integrated into EU policies, and for public funding to be used more strategically to mobilise private investment for nature conservation and restoration.