Harmful subsidies: why is the world still funding the destruction of nature?

Government-financed support in sectors including agriculture, fossil fuels and water is incentivising the annihilation of the natural world. But reforming the system is politically fraught

• World spends $1.8tn a year on subsidies that harm environment, study finds

By the middle of the century, our planet will need to feed almost 10 billion people, according to the UN. To do this sustainably and limit global heating to 1.5C, the world must also reforest on a huge scale, say scientists, while increasing food production without converting more rainforest and wetland into farmland.

It is an intractable challenge. With vast areas of forest, grasslands and savannah already lost to expanding agricultural frontiers and resource extraction in the last century, the competition for space, dubbed the land squeeze" by the World Resources Institute (WRI), will put unprecedented pressure on Earth's planetary boundaries.