Destruction of Ecosystems Begins to Generate Financial Consequences for Large Companies ⋆ The Costa Rica News

A report published by the organization Zero Carbon Analytics (ZCA) warns that companies are already facing financial consequences resulting from biodiversity loss and environmental degradation.

According to the report, productive sectors depend directly on natural resources, which sustain more than half of global economic activity. In this context, the destruction of ecosystems is emerging as a significant financial risk to the operation and profitability of businesses.

Among the main dependencies identified are water and climate. Industries such as food, beverages, and pharmaceuticals are among the most exposed, due to their high need for ecosystem services to maintain their operations.

The report notes that the economic losses associated with the degradation of nature are already evident and could intensify in the coming years. In sectors such as mining and power generation, profits could be reduced by up to 25%, according to projections.

Today, six of the ten companies most exposed to these risks, with revenues exceeding $1 billion, belong to the construction, housing, and infrastructure sectors, as their activities are highly vulnerable to climate events.

The authors emphasize that investing in the protection of nature is key to sustaining the economic functioning of both businesses and society as a whole, and therefore urge that this agenda be made a business priority.

The report estimates that ecosystem services contribute around $150 billion per year to the global economy. Furthermore, cited research indicates that approximately 55% of global gross domestic product (GDP) depends, to a greater or lesser extent, on nature and the benefits it provides to productive sectors.

“Despite this dependence, companies often operate in ways that overexploit nature and contribute to the degradation of ecosystems,” the report states.

In this context, in 2023, companies allocated $7.3 billion to activities that affect nature, a figure 30 times greater than investments in nature-based solutions (NBS). Meanwhile, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) believes that funding for NBS should be two and a half times higher by 2030.

According to researchers, a study by the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) published in 2025 identified water-related ecosystem services as posing the greatest financial risk to businesses. The pharmaceutical, food, and consumer goods industries are among the most exposed, due to their high level of dependence.

The analysis included 31,772 companies from 117 countries, classified according to their degree of dependence on nature. To this end, 21 ecosystem services were evaluated, grouped into two categories: provisioning services and maintenance and regulation services.

The researchers determined that more than a third of companies are critically dependent on water flow regulation. In addition, they found that 32.3% are also at risk from flood control, while 30.2% depend on storm mitigation.

On the other hand, the report draws on a 2022 study that assessed the economic risk of biodiversity dependence for 11,812 companies. That analysis concluded that $20 billion of business value depends on the services provided by nature.

Barclays Bank estimates that profits could fall by 25% over the next five years due to the degradation of nature in the mining and power generation sectors. It is estimated that the global consumer goods sector will face an impact of $200 billion solely due to future water shortages, according to the text.

The ECGI study warns that companies with greater dependence on nature tend to be those that have the greatest impact on biodiversity, a phenomenon the authors call the “double materiality of nature loss.”

This implies that productive activities depend on ecosystem services, but at the same time degrade them through their environmental impacts, creating a self-reinforcing cycle of risk.

An example of this situation can be seen in the beef industry, which drives deforestation and soil degradation but depends on extensive grazing areas and access to water.

Something similar occurs in the fertilizer market, where the intensive use of agrochemicals degrades soils and pollutes water, affecting the very resources on which the agri-food industry depends.

As this situation progresses, pressure on investors due to climate risks is growing. Recently, $100 billion was withdrawn from asset managers due to climate exposure.

In this regard, the authors indicate that momentum is growing, as 620 organizations from 50 countries have committed to nature-related reporting aligned with the international recommendations of the Task Force on Nature-related Financial Disclosures.

In a scenario marked by the accelerated deterioration of ecosystems, the report makes it clear that the environmental crisis is no longer just an ecological problem, but also a financial one.

For companies, ignoring their dependence on nature means taking on increasing risks that threaten their stability, while protecting it is becoming a key condition for long-term economic sustainability.

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