EY’s Nature Risk Barometer: The Future of Green Jobs

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EY's Nature Risk Barometer provides insights into nature-related disclosures.
Lucy Godshall, EY US Climate Change and Sustainability Services Leader and co-author of EY’s Nature Risk Barometer explores the future of green jobs

The World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025 reveals that global macro trends are driving the creation of approximately 170 million new jobs by 2030, with the green transition playing a significant role in this growth.

This trend is further supported by EY's second annual Nature Risk Barometer, which suggests that nature-positive policies and approaches could generate more than US$10tn in new annual business value and create 395 million jobs by 2030.

The report highlights that the urgency to address climate change and the increasing demand for authenticity and transparency from younger generations are creating opportunities for companies to implement meaningful climate action while supporting business growth.

This shift towards a nature-positive future is not only beneficial for the environment but also presents significant economic potential.

Lucy Godshall, EY US Climate Change and Sustainability Services Leader and co-author of the report, emphasises the importance of capitalising on these opportunities.

Lucy Godshall, EY US Climate Change and Sustainability Services Leader

Lucy is a leader in the CCASS Sustainability Advisory practice with more than a decade of experience advising clients on ESG and sustainability strategy, governance, risk management and reporting across a wide range of topics, from climate change and biodiversity to DEI.

She focuses on the health and life sciences sector, serving clients across pharmaceutical, biotech, medical devices, consumer health and health care providers.

Lucy also leads the US firm’s nature and biodiversity services, helping companies to understand their nature-related risks and dependencies.

Before joining the firm, Lucy started her career as an environmental economist and graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science, where she earned her master’s degree in Environmental Economics and Climate Change.

How prepared are organisations to identify and capitalise on nature-related risks and opportunities? What key challenges are they facing?

While working on the second EY Americas Nature Risk Barometer report just one year after release of the final Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) framework in 2023, it was gratifying to see that organisations are making progress with assessing and disclosing their impact and reliance on nature.

This is an important first step, despite how much more work remains. 

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Ultimately, corporations need to use this information to help inform how they can make meaningful changes in how they interact with and depend on the natural environment to support business decision making. 

Nature represents both a risk and an opportunity for today’s businesses and encompasses interconnected issues like climate change, water scarcity, pollution and biodiversity loss.  For instance, we see global supply chain disruptions related to hurricanes and other extreme weather events, water shortages and the declining availability of commodities and natural resources.

On the flip side, we see the financial benefits that come with the protection and restoration of nature, from the use of nature-based solutions to adapt to climate change or to fuel new product and technological innovations. 

However, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to evaluating nature-related risks and opportunities. Each organisation needs to create its own big-picture, data-informed view of their relationship with nature across their value chain to integrate into their business strategies. 

Key challenges organisations face in doing so include:

  • Lack of available data
  • Non-standard measurement approaches
  • Knowledge barriers
  • Funding gaps

Despite these challenges, it is encouraging to see organisations take initial steps to better understand their risks and opportunities and, in some cases, even secure first mover advantage in their respective markets. 

EY reports that less than 20% of a company reporting meets leading nature risk framework's recommendations.

The Nature Risk Barometer suggests that nature-positive policies will help companies generate new annual business value and create jobs– how can organisations capitalise on this opportunity?

With nature as its muse, business and governments around the world have an opportunity to drive innovation, unlock new revenue streams and transform key socio-economic systems, including food, energy, extractives and infrastructure that are vital for a nature positive future.  

Additionally, adoption of nature-positive solutions can support efforts to achieve net zero targets, even as they distinguish themselves from competitors, bolster customer engagement and realise increased brand loyalty.

The path an organisation takes will vary, reflecting their industry and business strategy, but they must act decisively to transform nature- and climate-related vulnerabilities into opportunities that can help them move to their desired future state.

How can companies implement TNFD recommendations to move toward a nature-positive future?

Our research revealed seven leading practices to help organisations address nature-related risks and opportunities in alignment with the TNFD framework:

  1. Monitor the regulatory landscape around nature and prepare to comply with new regulations that are on the horizon.
  2. Educate management about the growing significance of nature to business.
  3. Understand how nature impacts the business’ value chain upstream, downstream and across the organisation, and use those insights about nature impacts and dependencies to map the path forward.
  4. Assess data availability across the business to understand the base from which it is beginning and use ongoing data collection to measure progress.
  5. Leverage technology to assess localised biodiversity impacts and dependencies – data can be powerful.
  6. Bring external stakeholders into the conversation to accelerate action. A collective approach can help enable environmental stewardship at scale.
  7. Take an integrated approach to nature, climate change and human rights, making nature part of business decision making. Clear targets, timelines and initiatives for how the organisation will preserve and restore natural habitats while protecting human rights and combating climate change should be factored into the process.

What key findings from the report were most surprising, and why?

I was pleased to see that 75% of companies across the US, Canada and Latin America had disclosed some nature-related information associated with at least one of the 14 TNFD recommended disclosures.

Interestingly, Latin America surpassed the US and Canada, with 89% disclosure coverage.

That region has a rich diversity of ecosystems, ranging from the expansive Amazon rainforest to the towering Andean highlands – areas that hold global and local ecological and economic significance. As companies operate near these natural treasures, they may find themselves under heightened scrutiny, compelling them to disclose nature-related risks and work towards greater protection and restoration of these assets.


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