Raise taxes on firms that harm nature, OECD tells G7 countries

Report calls for change of priorities and culture to avert catastrophic biodiversity loss

Governments need to ramp up investment in nature restoration and raise the tax burden on companies that degrade wildlife, according to recommendations made to the G7 group of rich nations.

The proposals are part of a growing debate on how to radically change humanity's relationship with nature in the wake of a new UN mega-report that showed an alarming decline in the Earth's life-support systems.

The Global Assessment Report is the most comprehensive study of life on Earth ever undertaken. It serves as a health check for the planet and is compiled by the United Nations Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) from more than 1,500 academic papers and reports from indigenous groups. The overall message is that the world's life support systems, on which humans depend, are in trouble. Remedies are possible, but they require urgent, transformative action because policies until now have failed to halt the tide of man-made extinctions. The authors hope the mega-report will guide policymakers and generate public discussion on biodiversity (including wildlife, food crops, livestock and ecosystems) in the same way that the climate debate is shaped by reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.