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The Economics of Biodiversity: the Dasgupta Review

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The Economics of Biodiversity: the Dasgupta Review The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Summary brief for Review(2021) business On 2 February, the UK Government Nature is an indispensable system value of a country’s economic launched The Economics of on which we all depend, and which success, is a necessary step Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review. must thrive for us to effectively towards returning the world to This independent review was respond to challenges, such as a path of sustainable prosperity commissioned by the UK Treasury those posed by emerging diseases instead of continuing to live beyond to shape the international response including COVID-19 and climate our planet’s means. to biodiversity loss and inform global change. The Dasgupta Review action from all stakeholders. makes clear that conservation and restoration efforts are solutions WANT TO LEARN MORE? The Dasgupta Review sets out to these critical challenges and a new framework, grounded in provide many other benefits to the You can find the Headlines ecology and Earth Sciences, yet economy and society. Not only does Messages of the Dasgupta applying principles from finance the conservation and restoration Review here. The full report can and economics to understand the of nature reduce serious risks to be found here. sustainability of our interaction our economies, including business There is now ample evidence with nature and prioritize efforts and financial institutions, but it also that nature plays a key role to enhance nature and prosperity. contributes towards the mitigation in the COVID-19 pandemic’s of, and adaptation to, the effects of emergence and recovery. In This business summary highlights climate change. December 2020, WBCSD the main points from the Dasgupta released COVID-19: A Dashboard Review relevant to business and The Dasgupta Review describes to Rebuild with Nature, a white paper that proposes a dashboard puts it in the context of other the hidden costs of depleting based on the two core planetary landmark reports, as well as global natural capital as being a major boundaries of climate change events and frameworks related to constraint for long-term value and nature loss. The report the nature and climate agendas. creation. concludes that a nature-positive food system is the most effective The Dasgupta Review has the It calls for action to increase the way to build resilience against future shocks, including new potential to be a key input into the quantity and quality of our stock of pandemics. Convention on Biological Diversity nature and associated biodiversity (UNCBD) COP15 and its technical and demonstrates that acting now In December 2020, the Nature meetings ahead of the COP. In will be significantly less costly than Action project launched the addition, it could also input into delaying further. We must start report Accelerating business the UN Framework Convention on accounting fully for the impact of solutions for climate and nature, Climate Change (UNFCCC) COP26 our interactions with nature and which aims to clarify definitions where nature and particularly rebalancing our demand with to support the alignment of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) will nature’s capacity to supply. Natural Climate Solutions (NCS) with Nature-based Solutions to play a key role, as well as the UN accelerate investments at scale. Food Systems Summit (UN FSS) Part of the solution lies in changing In addition, the report helps action track on boosting nature- our measures of economic success. business to navigate the nature positive agriculture. Moving to inclusive wealth, which and climate agenda by mapping measures all capital assets (i.e. the key initiatives, platforms and human capital, produced capital, conventions for collective action. and natural capital) as the aggregate The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review (2021) Headlines you need to know from the report We need to change how we think, act Decline of biodiversity happens have proved unfit to manage the and measure success. The Dasgupta 30% less in areas that are managed externalities. As such, we need Review proposes three broad and by indigenous people. to recalibrate financial, business interconnected transitions: 1) balance and economic models to better • Nature-based solutions are humanity’s demand with nature’s supply, understand the true value of people estimated to have around 10 and increase supply relative to its and nature and integrate it into all times the job creation rate current level; 2) change our measures of levels of decision-making. of investments in fossil fuels economic success; and 3) transform our according to the ILO. Bringing • An inclusive measure of wealth is institutions and systems. nature and ecosystem services needed to rebalance the risks and 1. BALANCE HUMANITY’S DEMAND into spatial planning is essential rewards for business interactions AND NATURE’S SUPPLY AND to ensure that conservation and with nature. Introducing human INCREASE SUPPLY RELATIVE TO restoration are as effective as capital and natural capital into ITS CURRENT LEVEL. possible in an increasingly crowded national accounting systems world. would inform and improve • Nature is an asset, and we have decision-making at scale globally. failed to manage our natural • Commodity production is the Increased investment in physical capital in a manner that maintains leading driver of biodiversity loss accounts, standardisation of data resilience and productivity. and there is a growing share of and modelling approaches, and According to the Global Footprint global agricultural land that is technical support would facilitate Network, we need 1.6 Earths to used to grow crops other than these shifts. be able to continue current living food, such as biofuels and fiber for standards. textiles. 3. TRANSFORM OUR INSTITUTIONS AND SYSTEMS TO ENABLE AND • The quantity and quality of • Transparency in supply chains SUSTAIN CHANGE. our stocks of natural assets will be a key part of the solution. need to increase significantly. This will enable actors to identify • We must transform our financial Conservation of our natural where they can reduce their and educational systems to assets is easier and cheaper than environmental impacts, and to enable these changes and sustain restoration, as it avoids potential monitor actions taken to achieve them: tipping points and the problems sustainability commitments and º What is required is a set of of reversing regime shifts, and thereby improve accountability. global standards underpinned maintains option values through 2. CHANGE MEASURES OF by credible data that businesses conserving ecosystems and ECONOMIC SUCCESS TO GUIDE and financial institutions can species. US ON A MORE SUSTAINABLE use to fully integrate nature- • Any reductions in demand for PATH. related considerations into their extraction due to increased decision-making, and assess • The Dasgupta Review develops efficiencyhave been neutralized and disclose their use of nature. the economics of biodiversity on by the impact of increases in the the understanding that we- and º Establishing the natural world main drivers of resource extraction: our economies- are ‘embedded’ in education policy is essential human population growth and within nature, not external to it. As to empower citizens to make affluence. nature is only capable of producing informed choices and demand • Increased extraction of a finite flow of goods and services the change that is needed. provisioning services now comes (upon which we rely), the economic • Management and mitigation of at the expense of future provision model of growth is bounded. If nature-related financial risks of those same services, as well capital markets are to function more can lead to increased resilience as regulation and maintenance effectively, we must account fully for of balance sheets for financial services. It is worthy of note the impact of our interactions with institutions. The Dasgupta Review that much of said extraction of nature and rebalance our demand uses the analogy of biological provisioning services is subsidized. on its capacity to supply. diversity playing a similar role to • Conservation and restoration of • Nature’s worth to society (goods the diversity of an investment ecosystems can have a positive and services provided) is not portfolio in mitigating the risk of impact on job creation. The reflected in current market prices betting heavily on a narrow spread International Labour Organization because it is open to all, without any of options. Biodiversity-related risks (ILO) estimates that 1.2 billion jobs cost. But this is not simply a market arise from changes in either the rely on effective management failure: it is a broader institutional stock or condition (or combination and sustainability of ecosystems. failure, too. Many institutions of both) of natural capital from The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review (2021) societal responses to changes in • Trade plays a major role in the are often home to the world’s most the state or quality of natural capital. nature agenda. Trade expansion biodiverse regions, yet tend to This includes climate change-related over recent decades has allowed have less stringent environmental risks or other environmental financial higher-income countries to off- standards. More than 50% of risks. By channeling credit and shore the adverse impacts of their the biodiversity loss associated investments toward projects that consumption on ecosystems and with consumption in developed enhance, rather than degrade, natural biodiversity through increased trade economies is estimated to occur capital and ecosystem services, in commodities, goods and services outside their territorial boundaries. financial institutions are exposed to with lower-income countries, which investments with relatively lower risk and greater certainty around yields. Figure 1: Summary of Options for Change The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review (2021) What can business do? The Dasgupta Review, as with other to vary by ecosystem and over time), The Review highlights analysis from milestone reports, calls for urgent taxes imposed equally on imports and the Waldron Report that we can feed action from the business community domestically produced products.
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