On the Brink: A Call for Urgent Action on Nature's Collapse at COP16

As we gather in Cali, Colombia for COP16, we are not meeting on a path to a brighter tomorrow; we are at the edge of a cliff, looking down.

The grim reality before us is a planet in freefall.

The degradation of our natural systems—soils, oceans, rivers, species—is not a distant forecast; it’s a current and accelerating tragedy. For every day we delay meaningful action, another forest dies, another river turns toxic, another species vanishes, and our biggest allies in resilience against the climate crisis fade from existence.

Nature’s value to us is beyond measure, yet we are witnessing a staggering collapse of her most vital services, brought about largely by outdated, extractive systems in agriculture, pollution, and resource exploitation.

Nature’s Devastation: The Sobering Numbers

Our soils, the lifeblood of all terrestrial ecosystems, are degrading at rates previously unimaginable, with a third of the world's arable land already lost to erosion, contamination, and desertification.

Oceans, once rich with life, are suffocating beneath dead zones—areas like the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Mexico where life has vanished due to nutrient runoff from fertilizers and pesticides.

Great lakes, once symbols of nature’s abundance, are now icons of collapse. The Aral Sea, Lake Baikal, Lake Titicaca, and Lake Victoria stand as hollow shells of what they once were, drained and polluted beyond recognition.

Rivers like the Amazon, Mississippi, Colorado, and Po are choking, either drying out or filling with the chemical residues of agricultural pollutants and irrigation demands.

Our Greatest Tool is Slipping Away

Nature isn’t just our backdrop; it is our primary tool for creating resilience, adaptation, and mitigation in the face of the climate crisis.

Healthy ecosystems stabilize temperatures, retain carbon, regulate water, and bolster biodiversity—all functions essential to a livable future. But as our natural systems deteriorate, so does our capacity to cope with escalating climate impacts. We are losing these benefits at alarming rates, and with them, our most effective means of protecting ourselves and future generations from disaster.

An Urgent Call to Reform Our Agricultural Systems

One solution is painfully clear: end chemical, monoculture, and commodity-based agriculture. These systems, responsible for up to 80% of biodiversity loss, are not only draining our soil and water systems dry but are actively polluting our rivers and seas. Every square inch of monoculture and chemically treated soil is a death sentence to the ecosystems it obliterates and a nail in the coffin of natural resilience. We must halt this cycle of destruction. Moving away from destructive agriculture and into regenerative, biodiversity-based food systems is one of the most immediate, attainable actions we can take. Yet, political inertia is paralyzing. While we can’t afford to wait for sluggish government responses, the solution can be driven by those with the power and resources to enact change now: private capital and the markets.

Harnessing Private Capital to Drive Regenerative Change

The financial sector holds a transformative power to reshape our agricultural systems by making nature’s services invaluable and costly to ignore. Private capital can, and should, drive up the cost of doing business for degenerative industries, from chemical input producers to commodity trading firms. Large-scale divestment and funding redirection by asset owners and banks can strike at the core of these industries’ operations. Let’s make no mistake: these sectors have had a “license to kill” for decades, these companies have been permitted to degrade our life-support systems while reaping enormous profits, all underpinned by tax payers - though subsidies. It's deeply perverse and plain wrong.

It’s time to revoke this license to kill. It’s time to hold them accountable for the crimes they’ve committed against our biosphere and demand that capital flow towards sustainable, regenerative investments.

A New Era of Value in Nature and Its Services

Imagine a world where we no longer price nature out of our economy but into it. Imagine private equity and financial markets that elevate the cost of capital for destructive models, effectively penalizing degenerative assets while incentivizing sustainable, regenerative systems. While a mass-scale overhaul in oil and gas may still seem aspirational, we can start with the industries whose existence hinges upon unchecked exploitation of our natural resources.

A movement of investors, asset owners, and businesses dedicated to protecting and replenishing nature can accelerate a critical shift in the global economy.

Hope Through Bold Action

COP16 must be more than another gathering of words and empty promises. We stand at the precipice, not just in peril but with the potential for profound change. We must have the courage to act boldly, decisively, and immediately.

Those who wield capital must wield it for life, not profit at the expense of life. Let this be the COP where the financial sector acknowledges that life itself is our most precious asset.

Let us envision a future where we don’t merely survive but thrive alongside a healthy, vibrant planet. Let us demand not incremental change but radical transformation. There is no other path to resilience, no other road to adaptation, no other means of mitigation. We must act, and we must act now.