Institutional investors are confronting a profound reality: ecosystems are not externalities – they are infrastructure, with balance-sheet consequences and portfolio relevance. The $80 trillion cost of inaction on Nature between 2000 and 2050 is among the greatest fiduciary oversights in modern economic history.
For Africa alone, the share of this cost is estimated at $6.5 trillion. These are not abstract figures – they represent systemic risks to sovereign creditworthiness, institutional portfolios, and the resilience of our economies. The G20 Nature Investment Roadmap 2.0 has issued a clarion call: to value Nature as a productive public asset, embed ecosystem services into fiscal frameworks, and integrate them into fiduciary mandates.
International accounting standards reinforce this imperative. Under IAS 37 (Provisions, Contingent Liabilities and Contingent Assets), ecosystem degradation constitutes an unpriced
