Tackling climate change requires new financing standards

1.8 trillion dollars are spent annually by the world's governments on environmental destruction.

This is what humanity can achieve unless governments correct their mistakes

KUALA LUMPUR - Environmental experts have warned that the inaction of world governments in addressing standards for financing climate-damaging projects will complicate any path to achieving carbon neutrality if officials are not quickly addressed to reform the policy of support for investments.

The warnings, issued by researchers from The B Team and Business for Nature, in a study published Thursday, came in which they said that “subsidies that harm ecosystems, wildlife and the climate amount to nearly two trillion dollars annually,” adding to pressures on countries.

The study is the first in more than a decade to include an estimate of the total value of environmental damage from subsidies, and is backed by a global coalition of companies seeking to halt biodiversity loss and promote sustainability.

The researchers concluded that worldwide at least $1.8 trillion annually in government funds, tax breaks and other support goes to harmful practices.

This includes agriculture, construction, forestry, fossil fuels, marine fisheries, transportation and water which are the sectors responsible for the majority of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Eva Zabi: We need a system that balances people, nature and the economy

"Most people think that subsidies are too boring or a taboo topic because it's so ingrained in our economy," Reuters news agency quoted Eva Zabi, CEO of Business for Nature, as saying.

She explained that when they are primarily designed to promote growth, they can be "unintentionally harmful to nature".

Zappy added that a new system was needed that would balance people, nature and the economy, although "we cannot switch subsidies overnight".

Improving the conservation and management of natural areas, such as parks, oceans, forests and wilderness, is seen as critical to protecting the ecosystems that humans depend on and limiting global warming to internationally agreed goals.

But forests are still being cut down, often to produce commodities such as palm oil and soybeans, destroying biodiversity and threatening climate goals, as trees absorb about a third of global warming emissions.

195 countries are scheduled to finalize an agreement to protect plants, animals and ecosystems similar to the Paris climate agreement at the United Nations summit, scheduled to be held on the 25th of next April in the Chinese city of Kunming.

In their study, the researchers called for a project goal to reform the $500 billion annual subsidy to be increased and adopted in the new Global Charter of Nature.

The study found that the fossil fuel industry annually receives $640 billion in subsidies, and environmentally harmful agricultural activities receive $520 billion, while $350 billion flows in for the unsustainable use of fresh water and the management of water and sanitation infrastructure.

Types of subsidies harmful to nature include promoting biofuel crops that can cause deforestation when clearing land, using chemical pesticides in agriculture and providing companies with cheap water at the expense of communities.

Governments must commit to redirecting, reusing or eliminating all environmentally harmful subsidies equivalent to 2 percent of global GDP by 2030

Getting out of this problem requires governments to pledge to redirect, reuse or eliminate all environmentally harmful subsidies equivalent to two percent of global GDP by 2030.

Doing so would significantly unlock the $711 billion required annually to protect nature during this decade, in addition to covering the cost of reaching net zero emissions.

Late last month, the World Bank noted in a report that reinvesting existing agricultural subsidies in smart innovations such as feed supplements for livestock or rice production systems that use less water could boost productivity.

The authors of the bank's report indicated that the move will reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the sector by more than 40 percent.

2022 presents an "unmissable opportunity to secure a nature-positive world by 2030," said Marco Lambertini, managing director of green group WW International. "There is no time to lose," he added.