The TEEB study is hosted by UNEP with financial support from the European Commission, Germany, the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Japan. 

At the meeting of the environment ministers of the G8 countries and the five major newly industrialising countries that took place in Potsdam in March 2007, the German government proposed a study on '"The economic significance of the global loss of biological diversity" as part of the so-called "Potsdam Initiative" for biodiversity.

The following wording was agreed to at Potsdam: "In a global study we will initiate the process of analyzing the global economic benefit of biological diversity, the costs of the loss of biodiversity and the failure to take protective measures versus the costs of effective conservation."

This proposal was endorsed by G8+5 leaders at the Heiligendamm Summit on 6-8 June 2007, and work on the TEEB (The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity) study began.

The study is led by Pavan Sukhdev, founder-director of the green accounting project “GIST” (Green Indian States Trust) in India.

The TEEB study is being conducted in phases. Preliminary findings from the first phase were presented, in the form of an interim report, by Minister Gabriel, Commissioner Dimas and Mr. Pavan Sukhdev at the High-Level Segment of the Ninth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP-9) in Bonn, Germany, in May 2008.

Sections of Phase II of the study were released from Autumn 2009 through to the final synthesis and presentation in October 2010. Phase III now focuses on facilitation and support for national, regional, local and sectoral studies being initiated around the world.