UN warns biodiversity loss poses greater business risk than climate change
PricewaterhouseCoopers claims UK firms are “biting the hand that feeds” through negligent approach to ecosystem services 
By James Murray, BusinessGreen, 13 Jul 2010 The threat to businesses arising from unchecked biodiversity loss is larger and more immediate than that presented by climate change. That is the stark conclusion of a long-anticipated UN-backed report to be launched in London later today, which warns that the vast majority of firms are ignoring risks associated with biodiversity loss and environmental degradation, despite the fact that they pose a serious and growing threat to their operations. The two year study from the UN Environment Programmme, The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB), will show that the annual economic impact of biodiversity loss stands at between $2 trillion (£1.3 trillion) and $4.5 trillion, equating to up to 7.5 per cent of global gross domestic product. It argues that contamination of water supplies, the loss of productive land through soil erosion and drought, and disruption to supply chains caused by deforestation and overfishing all result in multibillion-dollar costs that are largely ignored by the current global economic system. A section of the report, contributed by consultancy giant PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), also says that fewer than one in five firms see biodiversity as an important business issue, while just two of the world’s largest 100 companies manage it as a strategic risk. …
UN warns biodiversity loss poses greater business risk than climate change
The actual report cites climate change as one of the key drivers of loss of biodiversity.
"The direct drivers of biodiversity loss include habitat loss and degradation, climate change, pollution, over-exploitation and the spread of invasive species."
Moreover, steps to mitigate global warming will complement steps to mitigate biodiversity loss.
What this report is pointing to economically, is the "tragedy of the commons" effects of economic decisions when environmental damage is kept external of market decisions. For Brazil or a landowner in Brazil it is profitable to deforest a section of the rain forest and use the land as pasture. But the whole world suffers from that decision. So the tough economic and political question is how to incent the land owner to consider damage to the world when making decisions. Without a marketplace system it will require government mandates which are typically not healthy for the market. But doing nothing only allows the problems to grow.
Loss of biodiversityt