The newly released State of Finance for Nature 2026 report provides the most comprehensive accounting to date of where global capital is flowing in relation to nature, and the gap between what is happening and what is required.
A 30:1 Ratio that cannot be ignored
In 2023, global finance flows into nature-negative activities reached USD 7.3 trillion, while investment in Nature-based Solutions (NbS) amounted to just USD 220 billion – a ratio of more than 30:1. Of that NbS total, the private sector contributed only USD 23 billion. Public finance carries the overwhelming majority of the load, a distribution that is neither sustainable nor sufficient.
To meet global commitments under the Rio Conventions, NbS investment must increase by more than 2.5 times, reaching USD 571 billion per year by 2030.
Agriculture at the centre of the problem and the solution
Agriculture occupies a uniquely paradoxical position: it is simultaneously one of the largest drivers of nature loss and one of the most powerful vehicles for reversing it. The report identifies USD 400 billion in environmentally harmful agricultural subsidies supporting practices that degrade soil, water and ecosystems, while public investment in sustainable agriculture, forestry and fisheries fell by 4% to USD 66 billion in 2023, a contraction at precisely the moment when scale-up is most needed.
The NbS types with the greatest potential to reverse this trajectory include agroforestry (silvopasture and silvoarable systems), cover crops, optimised grazing management, avoided grassland conversion, and reforestation, the core toolkit of regenerative agriculture. The report projects agroforestry systems alone will require a scale-up of over 144% by 2050.
The Nature Transition X-Curve
The report introduces the “Nature Transition X-Curve” framework: two converging trajectories requiring the simultaneous phase-out of harmful finance and the scaling up of NbS investment. For food systems, reforming agricultural subsidies and redirecting that capital toward regenerative practices is not a policy aspiration, it is the mechanism through which the transition becomes financially viable. Delay on one axis directly undermines progress on the other.
The MENA Dimension
In arid and semi-arid environments, soil degradation, water depletion and ecosystem loss are present-day constraints on food security and agricultural productivity, not abstract future risks. The practices the report prioritises, agroforestry adapted to arid climates, cover cropping for soil moisture retention, optimised grazing management, are directly applicable to MENA conditions. The question is not whether these approaches work, but whether the financing structures, policy incentives and enabling conditions can be assembled at the pace required.
Reforming harmful subsidies and mobilising the financial instruments that already exist, sustainable bonds, payments for ecosystem services, certified supply chain finance, represent the clearest near-term pathway. The data is clear on the direction. The opportunity now is in accelerating the pace.
The UNEP State of Finance for Nature 2026 report is available at: https://www.unep.org/resources/state-finance-nature-2026
