- University of British Columbia, Geography, Canada (audreyib@student.ubc.ca)
As the pressures of global debt distress mount, the incorporation of nature-related financial risk into sovereign debt assessments has become a key policy lever for environmental organizations. Proponents suggest that incorporating nature into financial risk management will transform market incentives to exploit natural resources, including for sovereigns. Others raise concern that the incorporation of risk will simply raise costs of capital for jurisdictions that are the most vulnerable to climate and nature impacts, compounding the pressures that drive extractive land use change. Yet the incorporation of nature-related financial risk into sovereign debt assessments remains underexplored across political, financial, and techno-scientific dimensions. The result is that what kinds of “nature risks” are made visible—and what kind of risk management is made actionable—within the international financial and monetary system remains undefined and untested. This research explores how financial sector representatives, civil society organizations, and scientists hope to use “nature risk” to challenge the dynamics of dual economic and ecological crises. It seeks to understand the implications of the risk approach to sovereign debt from the perspective of global social and environmental inequality, as well as international debates about responsibility, vulnerability, and justice in global environmental policy.
Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count.
Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count.
Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count.
Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count.
Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count.
Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count. Word count.
How to cite: Irvine-Broque, A.: Rising oceans, dying reefs, sustainable loan sharks? Managing the impact of sovereign debt on the environment, World Biodiversity Forum 2026, Davos, Switzerland, 14–19 Jun 2026, WBF2026-929, https://doi.org/10.5194/wbf2026-929, 2026.
