The European Commission today published its Roadmap for Nature Credits, laying the ground for a new market that would turn biodiversity into a financial instrument. Friends of the Earth Europe alerts that this push is a political distraction that will weaken environmental regulation, undermine public investment, and prioritise corporate profits over real ecological action.
Clara Bourgin, nature campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe commented:
“Nature credits are a cover for inaction, a greenwashing shortcut that allows corporations to keep destroying nature as long as they pay for it. This is not the time for market schemes that benefit only a few while putting nature at risk. Instead of treating biodiversity as a business opportunity, EU decision-makers must strengthen environmental law, properly fund nature restoration and redirect harmful subsidies.”
Friends of the Earth Europe’s short analysis of the EU Roadmap for Nature Credits:
- A threat to EU public funding: As the EU is about to publish the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) – a seven-year framework regulating the EU’s annual budget – the Commission’s emphasis on nature markets could be used to justify scaling back public funding for biodiversity.
- A distraction from real solutions: Nature credits create the illusion of action while avoiding the changes needed to stop the destruction of biodiversity. This includes stopping and redirecting financial flows and investments that are damaging to biodiversity (including from the Common Agricultural Policy), enforcing environmental laws, and supporting community-led conservation efforts. A 2024 report from WWF shows that the EU’s reported €37bn biodiversity funding gap could be closed entirely by redirecting existing subsidies to harmful activities.
- Supporting private profits, not people and nature: Nature credits will mainly serve investors and corporations, not the public good. Market-driven restoration will likely lead to a focus on areas that are the easiest, fastest and most profitable to restore, regardless of whether this is what is ecologically needed.
- Offsetting in disguise: While the Commission’s claims that nature credits will not lead to offsetting, the Roadmap does not contain any safeguards to prevent offsets. With little demand beyond offsetting purposes, companies are likely to use credits to justify continued destruction.
- Shifting the problem abroad: The Roadmap mentions a project in Peru, indicating that the proposed nature credit market might not stop at the EU borders. This raises serious concerns, risking to repeat the failures of carbon markets where such schemes have led to land grabs and human rights abuse.
More resources
- Statement signed by over 270 organisations and academics calls on governments, multilateral bodies, conservation organisations and other actors to stop the promotion, development and use of biodiversity offsetting and crediting schemes
- Blogpost on the dangers behind biodiversity credits
- Report of Friends of the Earth International and others
- Friends of the Earth Europe’s checklist on false promises – including carbon offsetting and biodiversity offsetting
