The UK Government commissioned an independent, global Review on the Economics ofBiodiversity in Spring 2019. The report urges policymakers to start valuing ecosystems and says GDP encourages unsustainable growth.

Businesses and governments around the world will have to rethink economic growthas a measure of success if they want to make good on pledges to stop thedestruction of the natural world, according to a UK government-backed reportpublished today.

Commissioned by the UK government in 2019, the Review on the Economics of Biodiversity led by University of Cambridge economistProfessor Sir ParthaDasgupta lays out keyrecommendations for reversing manmade declines in biodiversity that areundermining the productivity, resilience and adaptability of our natural. Itwarns that this historic decline has placed economies and livelihoods at risk.

The study supports the assertions that environmental groups have been making fordecades that humanity has mismanaged its natural assets, and our demands onnature now far exceed its capacity to supply resources and vital services. TheReview calls for the expanding and improvement of protected areas, increasedinvestment into nature-based solutions, the creation or improvement of policiesto eliminate damaging consumption of natural assets. and the incorporation ofnatural capitalaccountingand proper valuation of ecosystemservicesinto all national accounting systems.

This year is critical in determining whether we can stop and reverse theconcerning trend of fast-declining biodiversity, said UK Prime Minister BorisJohnson. I welcome Professor Dasguptas Review, which makes clear thatprotecting and enhancing nature needs more than good intentions it requiresconcerted, co-ordinated action.

Join us as JUST Capital's Lorraine Wilson and author Michelle Holliday discuss viable pathways to stakeholder capitalism, justice and regeneration at our next virtual event, SB'21 Trend Watching February 23.

As co-host of COP26 and president of this yearsG7, we are going to make sure the natural world stays right at the top ofthe global agenda. And we will be leading by example here at home as we buildback greener from the pandemic through my Ten-PointPlan.

The Review also calls for ending the use of Gross Domestic Product (GDP)infavor of different metrics that would embed natural resources into todayseconomic accounting, as part of a shift towards a more accurate and inclusivemeasure of wealth.

Truly sustainable economic growth and development means recognising that ourlong-term prosperity relies on rebalancing our demand of natures goods andservices with its capacity to supply them, Dasgupta says. It also meansaccounting fully for the impact of our interactions with nature across alllevels of society. COVID-19 has shown us what can happen when we dont do this.Nature is our home. Good economics demands we manage it better.

The critical role of biodiversity in the longevity of life as we know it hasbeen on the business worlds radar for the past few years and has spawned aflurry of ambitious and promising efforts to help us course correct at scale. In2017, the Natural Capital Impact Group developed a healthy ecosystemmetric based on the impact of a company on the quality and quantity of biodiversity,soil and water designed to aid in business decision-making. In 2019, a group ofconservation scientists, NGOs and indigenous leaders urged governments to adopta Global Deal forNature,to tackle the interlinked crises of biodiversity loss and climate change;Adobe and Pantone joined forces on a Glowing, Glowing,Gonecampaign highlighting the global danger signaled by fluorescing coral reefs; anda diverse group of influential international organizations launched a coalitioncalledBusiness forNature,aimedat ensuring that a clear understanding of the relationship between nature,people and economies became integrated into all economic sectors, and at alllevels of decision-making a need echoed in the Dasgupta report.

A countrys GDPhas long been debunked as a measure of human welfare as it ismerely a measure of the size of its economy, not an indicator of itswellbeing.Several alternatives to GDP have been put forward over the years asbetter alternatives for assessing welfare. They include theIndex ofSustainable Economic Welfare,theGenuine Progress Indicator,GrossNational Happiness, theHumanDevelopment Index,and theComprehensive Net National Product,amongothers. These methodologies either (a) also quantify the size of economies intheir own ways, or (b) do not quantify the size of economies at all and insteadrate or rank them in their own fashion.

In 2017, Center for SustainableOrganizations founder MarkMcElroy proposed a new way of measuring and reporting the performance of wholeeconomies calledAggregate CapitalSufficiency(ACS) an extension ofmulticapitalism, a new form of capitalism thatinterprets economic performance in terms of impacts on all vital capitals(natural, human, social, etc) and not just one of them (economic).ACS enablesus to measure and report thesustainabilityof an economy, not just its sizeor its inhabitants well-being.

In 2020, WWF projected a US$10T hit to the global economy by2050if global biodiversity loss remained unchecked. In the past year, globalcompanies includingKering,Natura,Procter &Gamble,TimberlandandWalmarthave embedded commitments to preserve or restore biodiversity into theirsustainability strategies but governments need to embrace this way of thinkingfor the necessary changes to take hold.

Published Feb 2, 2021 7am EST / 4am PST / 12pm GMT / 1pm CET

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Landmark Review Calls for Nature to Be at the Center of Economic Decision-Making - Sustainable Brands