Biodiversity Opportunities and Risks for the Financial Sector, The Sustainable Finance Platform, Working Group Biodiversity

Description

Bart de Knegt wordt in rapport aangehaald: Natural structures such as forests, coral reefs, wetlands and dunes reduce the impact of natural hazards such as hurricanes and floods (Becker, 2010). For example, wetlands prevented USD 650 million worth of damages during the 2012 Superstorm Sandy (OECD, 2019). In addition, the total costs of hurricane Katrina (USD 150 billion) were significantly higher due to the loss of wetlands (Evison & Knight, 2010). Furthermore, terrestrial and marine biota play an important role in purifying water for drinking purposes. For example, around 60% of the groundwater that is used for drinking water in the Netherlands is purified by ecosystems (de Knegt et al., 2014).