Sustainability transition requires a nature-focused response to financial stress

Financial stress has marked implications on our transition to social and economic sustainability but its relationship with environmental sustainability is poorly understood. Here we discuss how financial stress impacts environmental sustainability, namely deforestation, air pollution and biodiversity, from local to global scales. Periods of financial crises can have both positive and negative environmental effects, but any beneficial effects that arise are short lived and disappear once economic growth returns. Even for a longer period of slower economic growth, environmental sustainability is not ensured. On this basis we argue for a new sustainability transition paradigm which moves away from current crisis management strategies towards ones that fully-integrate environmental sustainability and nature protection, into post-crisis support programmes. Short-term economic shocks can cut emissions and deforestation but harm biodiversity, while slower growth periods fail to deliver environmental sustainability. Recovery strategies must embed nature protection in our transition to sustainability.