Manchester, United Kingdom · 9 February 2026 — On 9 February 2026, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) released the Summary for Policymakers of its Methodological Assessment of the Impact and Dependence of Business on Biodiversity and Nature's Contributions to People — the first global, government-approved scientific assessment to systematically evaluate how business activities both rely on and degrade the natural world. The assessment was approved at the 12th session of the IPBES Plenary (IPBES-12), held from 3 to 8 February 2026 at the Manchester Central Convention Complex.
The report's central conclusion reframes biodiversity loss from a purely environmental concern to a systemic economic risk: the erosion of natural systems threatens supply chains, asset values, and financial stability in ways that current corporate reporting and risk management frameworks fail to capture.
A First-of-Its-Kind Assessment
The Business and Biodiversity Assessment represents a departure from previous IPBES outputs. While earlier assessments — including the landmark 2019 Global Assessment that warned one million species face extinction — documented the state of biodiversity and its drivers, this assessment focuses on the economic architecture that both depends on and drives nature loss.
The assessment was prepared over three years by a team of more than 80 experts from 40 countries. It reviews the scientific evidence on how businesses across all major sectors — agriculture, forestry, fisheries, mining, energy, construction, manufacturing, finance, and tourism — depend on ecosystem services and how their operations impact biodiversity. It then evaluates the tools and frameworks available for measuring, disclosing, and managing these nature-related risks.
Key Findings
Nature Loss as Systemic Risk
The assessment's most significant finding is that biodiversity loss constitutes a systemic risk to the global economy — not a discrete environmental externality that can be managed at the margin. The report identifies three channels through which this risk propagates:
- Physical risks: Direct impacts on business operations from the degradation of ecosystem services — for example, declining crop yields due to pollinator loss, water scarcity from watershed degradation, or supply chain disruption from fishery collapse.
- Transition risks: Financial and operational risks arising from the shift toward nature-positive policies and market expectations, including regulatory changes, shifting consumer preferences, and new disclosure requirements that may strand assets or render business models unviable.
- Liability risks: Legal and reputational exposure for companies whose activities cause or contribute to biodiversity damage, including litigation, regulatory penalties, and loss of social licence to operate.
The Measurement Gap
A central challenge identified by the assessment is the difficulty of measuring and quantifying business impacts on biodiversity. Unlike greenhouse gas emissions, which can be standardised into a single metric (tonnes of CO₂-equivalent), biodiversity is multidimensional — encompassing genetic diversity, species richness, ecosystem function, and the flow of nature's contributions to people. There is no single unit of biodiversity loss.
The assessment reviews the available measurement approaches, including:
- Species and ecosystem indicators: Metrics tracking species population trends, habitat extent, and ecosystem integrity
- Footprint accounting: Methods for attributing biodiversity impacts to specific economic activities along supply chains
- Nature-related risk metrics: Frameworks for assessing the exposure of specific assets and operations to nature-related risks
It concludes that while no single metric is sufficient, a combination of approaches can provide decision-useful information for businesses, investors, and regulators — provided that reporting standards are harmonised and made mandatory.
The Finance Sector's Role
The assessment devotes substantial attention to the role of financial institutions — banks, insurers, asset managers, and pension funds — in either perpetuating or reversing nature loss. It finds that financial flows directed toward activities that harm biodiversity vastly exceed those directed toward conservation or restoration.
| Financial Flow Category | Estimated Annual Magnitude |
|---|---|
| Public subsidies harmful to biodiversity | ~$500 billion–$1.8 trillion |
| Private finance directed toward nature-positive activities | ~$130–180 billion |
| Global biodiversity conservation spending | ~$130 billion |
The assessment calls for a realignment of financial flows, including the phasing out of harmful subsidies, the integration of nature-related criteria into lending and investment decisions, and the development of biodiversity credit markets that are scientifically robust and socially equitable.
The Plenary and Its Context
IPBES-12 was hosted by the Government of the United Kingdom — the first time the UK has hosted an IPBES Plenary. The session brought together representatives from approximately 150 member states, who deliberated on the assessment's findings, approved its Summary for Policymakers line by line, and addressed budgetary and governance matters for the platform.
The plenary was preceded by a Stakeholder Day on 2 February and included a parallel programme with a Business and Finance Day designed to bridge the science-policy-practice divide. The event drew participation from major financial institutions, corporate sustainability officers, and representatives of indigenous and local communities whose traditional knowledge systems are recognised by IPBES as essential to biodiversity assessment.
From Assessment to Action
The assessment's release is intended to catalyse action across several domains:
- Corporate disclosure: The report provides scientific validation for nature-related disclosure frameworks, particularly the TNFD, which published its final recommendations in September 2023. The IPBES assessment strengthens the evidence base that regulators need to make nature-related disclosure mandatory rather than voluntary.
- Financial regulation: Central banks and financial supervisors are increasingly examining nature-related risks as part of their financial stability mandates. The assessment provides the scientific grounding for incorporating biodiversity into stress testing and prudential supervision.
- Corporate strategy: For businesses, the assessment offers a framework for understanding where their operations sit on the spectrum of nature dependence and impact — and where the greatest risks and opportunities lie.
- Public policy: The assessment supports governments in designing policies that align economic incentives with biodiversity goals, including subsidy reform, procurement standards, and spatial planning.
Limitations and Critiques
The assessment is not without limitations. Its authors acknowledge that data availability remains uneven — biodiversity monitoring is far less developed than climate monitoring, and many regions, particularly in the Global South, lack the baseline ecological surveys needed to assess change. The assessment also notes that the complexity of biodiversity makes it inherently more difficult to communicate to financial decision-makers than the relatively straightforward metric of carbon emissions.
Some civil society observers have cautioned that framing biodiversity loss primarily as a financial risk could narrow the conversation to what is measurable in economic terms, potentially marginalising the intrinsic, cultural, and spiritual values of nature that are central to many indigenous worldviews. IPBES has sought to address this by incorporating diverse knowledge systems — including indigenous and local knowledge — into its assessments, though the integration remains a work in progress.
Sources
- IPBES, Methodological Assessment of the Impact and Dependence of Business on Biodiversity and Nature's Contributions to People, Summary for Policymakers, 9 February 2026
- IISD Earth Negotiations Bulletin, coverage of IPBES-12, February 2026
- Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, "Global Biodiversity Comes to Manchester: IPBES Explained," 3 February 2026
- JNCC (UK Joint Nature Conservation Committee), IPBES-12 hosting information, 2026
- Finance for Biodiversity Foundation, key insights for financial institutions, February 2026
- European Commission Green Forum, "IPBES Assessment Affirms Nature Loss as Systemic Business Risk," March 2026
FIRAT Editorial Board
Institutional Research Desk · Foresight Institute of Research and Translation
The collective editorial and research translation board of FIRAT, synthesising peer-reviewed evidence, policy briefs, and division milestones across our seven foundational research pillars.
