The link between biodiversity loss and the emergence and spread of infectious disease is well-established.
The Dasgupta Review on the economics of biodiversity seeks to reconstruct our economic grammar by showing that our economies are embedded within, and not external to, nature.
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Can you put a price on nature?
Natural capital: our natural resources – Vision Group for Sidmouth
Back in April, the government published a report on the economics of biodiversity:
Interim Report – The Dasgupta Review: Independent Review on the Economics of Biodiversity – GOV.UK
Over the last weeks, there has been quite a response.
This is professional look from last week:
Here is a more sceptical response:
While the Independent carries a piece by Prof Dasgapta, author of the report:
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Coronavirus shows we must change our economy to recognise that human wealth depends on nature’s health
From now on, protecting and enhancing our environment must be at the heart of how we achieve economic prosperity
Covid-19 is nature sending us a message. In fact, it reads like an SOS signal for the human enterprise, bringing into sharp focus the need to live within the planet’s means. The environmental, health and economic consequences of failing to do so are disastrous…
At the end of April, the Dasgupta Review on the economics of biodiversity – an independent, global review commissioned by the Treasury last year – published its interim report. The review seeks to reconstruct our economic grammar by showing that our economies are embedded within, and not external to, nature.
Unlike standard models of economic growth and development, placing ourselves and our economies within nature helps us to accept that our prosperity is ultimately bounded by that of our planet. This new grammar is needed everywhere, from classrooms to boardrooms, from parish councils to government departments.
It has profound implications for what we mean by sustainable economic growth, helping to steer our leaders towards making better decisions that deliver us, and future generations, the healthier, greener, happier lives that more and more of us say we want.
The importance of taking decisions guided by the science has become all the more apparent in recent months. While we still have more to learn about the epidemiology and effects of Covid-19, the link between biodiversity loss and the emergence and spread of infectious disease is well-established. As discussions about the recovery gather pace, economic and finance decisions must be guided by the science too.
From now on, protecting and enhancing our environment must be at the heart of how we achieve economic prosperity.