The world's banks must start to value nature and stop paying for its destruction

As a new report spells out how financial institutions contribute to biodiversity loss, the clamour is growing for a new approach

• Banks lent $2.6tn linked to ecosystem and wildlife destruction in 2019 - report

The scientific community has long been unequivocal about biodiversity destruction. Last month, the UN reported that the world had failed to meet fully any of the 2020 Aichi bioiversity targets that countries agreed with fanfare in 2010, even as it found that biodiversity is declining at an unprecedented rate, and the pressures driving this decline are intensifying.

This week's Bankrolling Extinction report finds that financial institutions provide the capital that is funding over-exploitation of our lands and seas, putting biodiversity in freefall. Last year, the world's 50 biggest banks provided $2.6tn (1.9tn) in loans and other credit to sectors with a high impact on biodiversity, such as forestry and agriculture. Bank by bank, the report authors found a cavalier ignorance of - or indifference to - the implications, with the vast majority unaware of their impact on biodiversity.