The poverty of extreme wealth

Companies like JBS, the world’s largest meat processor, have been repeatedly linked to illegal deforestation, yet continue to enjoy financing from major banks and investors. These practices not only destroy ecosystems but also accelerate climate change and displace indigenous communities.

The IPBES report underscores the urgent need to reform subsidies and investment patterns in these sectors. Those decisions lie in the hands of our elected leaders and institutions. 

If global subsidies driving nature’s decline were redirected to biodiversity conservation and restoration, we could close the funding gap and protect critical ecosystems. Yet these changes are impossible unless we address the influence of extreme wealth in perpetuating environmentally harmful industries.

Climate

As Donald Trump begins his second term as US president, backed by a cabinet of billionaires, his administration exemplifies how extreme wealth distorts governance and undermines environmental progress. Early executive orders have already signalled a rollback of climate policies and environmental regulations.

During his previous term, Trump withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement and dismantled over 100 environmental protections. Now, with fossil fuel advocates and corporate magnates in key positions, his administration is poised to deepen these attacks on climate and biodiversity.

This political reality reinforces the urgency of an extreme wealth line. 

Extreme wealth doesn’t just fund private jets and mega-yachts; it bankrolls political lobbying, media control, and corporate subsidies that entrench systems of exploitation. Without limits on wealth, there are no limits to the damage it can inflict on people and the planet.

Systems

While $135 billion is spent annually on biodiversity conservation, up to $3.3 trillion in public subsidies are directed toward sectors that harm nature. 

This imbalance mirrors the broader issue of wealth concentration. The resources exist to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss – but they are locked up in the hands of the ultra-rich and funnelled into harmful industries.

An extreme wealth line would help address this imbalance by defining a metric or set of metrics for excessive wealth. This would support political action towards a fairer economy, grounded in effective measures to stop the rise in global temperatures and deliver ecosystem restoration. 

Imagine the impact if just a fraction of billionaire wealth were invested in closing the biodiversity funding gap. Such a shift could finance the protection of critical habitats, rewild degraded landscapes, and support communities most affected by environmental decline.

Crossroads

The urgency of these changes will come into sharp focus later this year when COP30 convenes in Brazil, at the heart of the Amazon rainforest. 

The Amazon represents both the promise of ecological renewal and the danger of inaction. If deforestation continues at its current pace, the Amazon risks reaching a tipping point where it can no longer function as a rainforest, triggering cascading effects on global climate and biodiversity.

Extreme wealth’s control of global decision-making is a key barrier to progress. As the IPBES report highlights, addressing biodiversity loss requires transforming systems that concentrate power and wealth.

COP30 offers an opportunity for governments to act decisively – but it will require confronting the vested interests of the ultra-rich who benefit from environmental exploitation.

Drawing the line

The climate and biodiversity crises demand systemic change, not incremental reforms. The Extreme Wealth Line offers a framework to redefine success, fairness, and sustainability in a world facing ecological collapse.

Extreme wealth isn’t just excessive – it’s destructive. 

It destabilises democracy, distorts markets, blocks climate action, and drives the exploitation of people and nature. Without tackling the inequitable concentration of power and wealth, we cannot hope to reverse the environmental crises threatening life on earth.

This Author

Fernanda Balata is a senior political economist at the New Economics Foundation (NEF).