By Aron Urb (EU2017EE) (Flickr) [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
This article was originally published on The European Sting.
“Environmental risks to the economy cannot be ignored. The 2018 annual Global Risks Report of the World Economic Forum shows that 5 of the top 10 most likely risks are either environmental, or directly linked to environmental degradation.
Extreme weather events, climate change, man-made environmental disasters, water and food crises, and biodiversity loss all pose threats. What we need to do is convert these warnings, this risk, into opportunity. It’s about environmental challenges creating economic opportunities. I am convinced that we can and we should ‘scale-up’ business opportunities by channelling finance and investment towards activities that deliver environmental benefits and not environmental degradation.
This is what we mean by sustainable finance and sustainable investment. The European Commission has long recognised that a healthy environment goes hand in hand with economic growth and jobs, and is an indispensable foundation for sustainable development.
Whether it is about water-related risks such as flooding and droughts, or stranded assets from biodiversity loss (e.g. in agriculture), it is clear that not addressing environmental risks threatens the stability of financial markets. The environment is not a barrier to economic development. On the contrary, there is no successful, durable and competitive economic model if it is not sustainable.
Failing to address natural capital degradation poses risks not only to our health and the environment, but also to long-term economic growth, as well as to political and financial stability…”
Read on at: The European Sting.
