The world is spending at least $1.8 trillion every year, equivalent to 2% of global GDP, on subsidies that are driving the destruction of ecosystems and species extinction, finds new research commissioned by The B Team and supported by Business for Nature.

The study is the first in over a decade to provide an estimate of the total value of environmentally harmful subsidies (EHS) across key sectors. It finds the fossil fuel, agriculture and water industries receive more than 80% of all environmentally harmful subsidies per year, depleting natural resources, degrading global ecosystems, and perpetuating unsustainable levels of production and consumption, in addition to exacerbating global inequalities.

Two weeks ahead of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) COP15 Open Ended Working Group meeting in Geneva, coalition organizations The B Team and Business for Nature are calling for the $500 billion per year target on subsidy reform in the current draft Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) to be strengthened to reflect the latest research and commit governments to redirecting, repurposing or eliminating all environmentally harmful subsidies by 2030.

The study provides a breakdown of EHS across the economy; including agriculture, construction, forestry, fossil fuels, marine capture fisheries, transport and water - sectors that are responsible for the majority of global greenhouse gas emissions. It links subsidies, provided by public money, to impacts on the environment, global inequalities and climate.

- $640 billion of support a year is received by the fossil fuel industry, contributing to climate change, air and water pollution, and land subsidence.

- $520 billion of subsidies a year finances the agriculture industry. The environmental damage of unsustainable agricultural activities includes soil erosion, water pollution, commoditydriven deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions, conversion of natural habitats and consequent biodiversity loss.

The report highlights how redirecting, repurposing, or eliminating subsidies could make an important contribution to unlocking the $711 billion required each year to halt and reverse the loss of nature by 2030 as well as the cost of reaching net zero emissions.

During the 2010 UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Conference, 190 countries committed to phasing out or reforming subsidies harmful to biodiversity by 2020. However, governments failed to meet the target.

At the UN Framework Convention of Climate Change (UNFCCC) COP26 in Glasgow, 141 world leaders pledged to “halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030.” Yet the report reveals that every year $155 billion is used to subsidize unsustainable forest management and the production of forest-derived products, which encourages deforestation, a loss of carbon sequestration, and biodiversity loss.