Trade induced extinction risk footprints by European financial institutions

A new study in Nature Scientific Reports, led by WU Vienna researcher Siwar Ortiz-Guzmán with colleagues at Agence Française de Développement and Biotope, traces how European financial institutions bankroll extinction risk in far-flung ecosystems, often without realising it.
By linking 104 environmental pressures to 124 IUCN biodiversity threats and running them through a global trade model spanning 164 countries, the team found that all twelve European countries studied are net importers of extinction risk, with roughly 40% of their financial assets tied to the sectors driving it. The damage isn't marginal either: cutting extinction-risk exposure by just 1% would shrink economic output by almost as much, exposing how deeply financial systems depend on nature-harming activity. The findings, supported by REMASS, make the case for disclosing and divesting from assets harmful to biodiversity.

Read the full paper here.