The global economy is losing up to $25tn a year because sectors such as agriculture, energy and fishing fail to account for how their actions fuel interconnected crises in nature, climate and human health, a landmark international biodiversity science policy report found.

The failure to tackle biodiversity loss, climate change, water scarcity, food insecurity and health risks in isolation was not only compounding those issues but also driving spiralling economic costs, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) said. The body established by 94 countries is the equivalent of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, bringing together authoritative global agreement on science.

“By treating these as individual problems, we are wasting money, we’re duplicating efforts,” Pam McElwee of Rutgers University and a co-author of the report. “And if we were actually able to bring policy sectors together, there would be significant cost savings.”