A new study by researchers at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford, and Leiden University, published in Communications Sustainability, estimates environmental damage at $1.7 to $5.7 trillion a year, and finds biodiversity loss, not climate change, is its largest single component.

At the central and upper estimates this is several times more than the international community has committed to spend on climate action and biodiversity conservation combined, and is on the scale of the funding estimated to be needed globally to address these crises.

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The average annual damage bill for a person in the global top 10% is $2,300 to $7,500. In the United States, where per-person impacts are highest, the figure rises to $19,000 to $63,000 - equivalent to 6–20% of their income or 0.8–3% of their wealth. More than 60% of the global top 10% live in the US and EU. In the EU 40-45% of the population falls within this highest consuming group, and in the US it is over half the population.

Biodiversity loss is the single largest contributor to the global damage bill, accounting for 47–56% of the total. Climate change accounts for 36–45%. The finding underlines recent calls to tackle biodiversity and climate crises together rather than treating them as separate policy challenges.

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