Does Economic Growth affect Biodiversity?

By Aludra O’Dywer City of London School for Girls

Economic growth is a universally recognised sign of progress; increasing incomes, expanding industries, and improving infrastructure can help to reduce poverty and enhance quality of life across the globe. However, these improvements come at a cost to our environment and in turn Earth’s biodiversity.

As economies expand, our demand for natural resources grows alongside it. This results in deforestation for things like mining, agricultural expansion, and logging. Our global energy consumption has also grown tremendously in the last century, from 18,077 TWh in the 1920s to 186,383 TWh in 2024. That’s an increase of slightly more than ten times! Coal, oil, and natural gas account for 142,421 TWh of our energy consumption in 2024 which is approximately 76% of total consumption. Burning these fuels releases greenhouse gases, which contributes to global warming, melting the polar ice caps and destroying the habitats of a multitude of species such as polar bears, walruses, and penguins to name a few. Of course, it is not only the ice caps which are being affected, but countless other ecosystems are too – coral reefs, which require very specific temperatures in order to sustain the growth of corals, the savannah which is experiencing an increase in droughts and forests which have seen more wildfires with each coming year.

Economic growth also leads to widespread pollution. A key example of this is the growing agricultural industry – modern farming methods are growing increasingly reliant on chemical pesticides and fertilisers which although capable of boosting crop yield, have lots of unintended consequences on biodiversity. Pesticides can kill many potentially beneficial insects such as ladybugs, spiders, and important pollinators like bees. Many pesticides are also fat soluble, meaning that they can accumulate in animals that eat pests sprayed with pesticide and kill them too. Fertiliser runoff can leak into bodies of water and result in algal blooms (rapid algae growths) due to the excessive quantities of nitrogen and phosphorus commonly found in fertilisers. These layers of algae prevent sunlight from reaching underwater plants, killing them. This in turn depletes oxygen supply, forming a dead zone where aquatic life is unsustainable. This process is commonly known as eutrophication.

However, economic growth is not all bad. Economic growth has led to an increase in investment in environmental protection, scientific research and green technology such as wind turbines and solar panels. Advancements in technology such as hydroponic farms can help to tackle the problem of deforestation for agricultural land improving efficiency. The usage of renewable energy sources has also begun to rise in recent years helping us to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. Globalisation has made travelling much more accessible, leading to the growth of the ecotourism sector providing countries with a financial incentive to preserve biodiversity. Yet the choice we face is not a simple trade‑off between prosperity and the planet, but a question of what kind of growth we choose to pursue. If economies continue to prioritise short‑term profit over long‑term planetary health, we risk pushing ecosystems past irreversible tipping points and locking future generations into a poorer, more fragile world. But if we redirect our ingenuity, investment, and institutions towards truly sustainable growth – where natural capital is valued, polluters pay for the damage they cause, and green innovation is rewarded – then economic development can become a force for restoration rather than destruction. Ultimately, the measure of progress in the twenty‑first century will not be how fast GDP rises, but whether a child born anywhere on Earth inherits skies that are clearer, oceans that are fuller of life, and forests that still breathe. The real test of our civilisation is whether we can grow not at nature’s expense, but alongside it.

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