Biodiversity is equally significant as climate protection, underlines the High-Level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance of the European Commission in its recommendations published at the end of January 2018. 

There will be no real sustainability without profound changes in the global financial markets, which is of course no secret at all. At the end of January 2018, the European Commission presented the Final Report of the High-Level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance "Financing a Sustainable European Economy", attributing a key role to biodiversity. The comprehensive recommendations are an important milestone towards an EU Roadmap aiming at "building the world's most sustainable financial system". The European Commission will finalise its strategy on the basis of the report's findings.

Climate change continues to be a dominant theme, but increasingly as a "first among equals". The report attributes a key role to biodiversity: "If climate action is highest on today's political agenda, the investment gaps for other sustainable development priorities - such as biodiversity, resource efficiency and the social economy - are equally significant; as is the urgent need to make the agricultural model environmentally sustainable. Damage in biodiversity is especially alarming. "(p. 9) And p. 88: "On balance, policy signals predominantly reflect unsustainable economic approaches that deplete natural capital. The loss of biodiversity is the most alarming element in this context. The incorporation of natural capital risks and opportunities is still permitted and widespread. Financial institutions should ensure that, at the very least, they are no harm and do not support companies that deplete natural capital. "