RT Journal Article
T1 The costs of subsidies and externalities of economic activities driving nature decline
A1 Reyes García, Victoria
A1 Villasante Larramendi, Carlos Sebastián
A1 Benessaiah, Karina
A1 Pandit, Ram
A1 Agrawal, Arun
A1 Claudet, Joachim
A1 Garibaldi, Lucas A.
A1 Kabisa, Mulako
A1 Pereira, Laura
A1 Zinngrebe, Yves
K1 Biodiversity
K1 Environmentally harmful subsidies
K1 Externality
K1 Subsidy reform
K1 Sustainable finance
K1 Transformative change
AB Economic sectors that drive nature decline are heavily subsidized and produce large environmental externalities. Calls are increasing to reform or eliminate subsidies and internalize the environmental costs of these sectors. We compile data on subsidies and externalities across six sectors driving biodiversity loss—agriculture, fossil fuels, forestry, infrastructure, fisheries and aquaculture, and mining. The most updated estimates suggest that subsidies to these sectors total between US$1.7 and US$3.2 trillion annually, while environmental externalities range between US$10.5 and US$22.6 trillion annually. Moreover, data gaps suggest that these figures underestimate the global magnitude of subsidies and externalities. We discuss the need and opportunities of building a baseline to account for the costs of subsidies and externalities of economic activities driving nature decline. A better understanding of the complexity, size, design, and effects of subsidies and externalities of such economic sectors could facilitate and expedite discussions to strengthen multilateral rules for their reform.
PB Springer
SN 0044-7447
YR 2025
FD 2025
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10347/44629
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10347/44629
LA eng
NO Reyes-García, V., Villasante, S., Benessaiah, K. et al. The costs of subsidies and externalities of economic activities driving nature decline. Ambio 54, 1128–1141 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-025-02147-3
NO Open Access Funding provided by Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona. VRG acknowledges support by the European Research Council under an ERC Consolidator Grant (FP7-771056-LICCI). This work contributes to the “María de Maeztu” Programme for Units of Excellence of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (CEX2019-000940-M). SV gratefully acknowledges the financial support from EQUALSEA (Transformative adaptation towards ocean equity) project, under the European Horizon 2020 Programme, ERC Consolidator (Grant Agreement # 101002784) funded by the European Research Council.
DS Minerva
RD 20 may 2026