Biodiversity loss costs EU 450 billion euro each year

A silent crisis of biodiversity loss is costing the European Union 450 billion euro a year, adding to the stress of the ongoing financial crisis, according to a draft report to the European Parliament’s Environment Committee by Dutch MEP Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy.

“A quarter of the plants and animals in Europe are in danger of extinction,” Gerbrandy told the committee. “This destruction of nature will cost about three percent of annual economic growth – equivalent to that which Europe needs at present to rescue the euro. Biodiversity loss, though, continues year after year.”

In June 2011, the European Council of Ministers endorsed the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2020, as presented by the European Commission. The European Parliament is drafting and adopting its own report on the strategy to put forward its own recommendations to the Commission.

Source: Environmental News Service, 26 January 2012

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