Author: Holly-Marie Richards, Operations Manager

This month the government published the highly anticipated Dasgupta Review on the Economics of Biodiversity. The review was commissioned by HMT in 2019 and is the first time that a national treasury has issued a full review on the importance of nature to the economy. The review emphasises that we are all embedded in nature, not separate from it, and outlines the many ways in which all global prosperity is underpinned by nature, which Prof. Dasgupta describes as our most precious asset.

A key theme emerging from the review is that the degradation of nature is not experienced in the same way by everyone, Prof. Dasgupta himself has a background in studying the links between rural poverty in the world’s poorest countries and the state of the local environment. Poverty, climate change and environmental degradation are complex and intertwined issues, which simply cannot be addressed effectively in isolation. The review references the dynamics of our approach to managing nature for sanitation, global health, nutrition, education, climate change and traditional economic development. Crucially, it calls for a radical rethink of how we measure economic growth entirely.

Although the ideas presented are not necessarily new, scientists and economists have been discussing natural capital for decades, what is so impactful about this review is the concise and clear evidence-based call to action for policy makers, businesses, global institutions, and individuals everywhere. This was acknowledged by the Prime Minister during the launch of the review who stated, “Today Professor Dasgupta passes the baton to us, politicians and policymakers, and now it’s up to us to take action”.

The publication of this Review could not be timelier, published at the start of 2021 in a year when the UK is in the global spotlight hosting both COP26 and the G7 and when the economic recovery from Covid is at the top of the global agenda. The UK has a strong background in taking action to tackle poverty, biodiversity loss and climate change in an inclusive way through innovative programmes funded through its foreign aid budget. Programmes such as the Darwin Initiative fund projects with demonstrable impact on both biodiversity conservation and poverty reduction creating a “win-win” for both development and conservation. The implications of the Dasgupta review could be considered even more integrative, we should no longer be talking about “win-win” scenarios for nature and development but rather we should no longer consider them as separate entities. An investment in girl’s education is also an investment in nature, an investment in nature conservation is also an investment in global health, both examples are aiming to improve the long-term sustainability of our social-ecological system.

The UK is currently considered a development superpower, in terms of both its financial investment and expertise in international development. The fact that the review was commissioned by HMT is an example of that innovative approach. COP26 is an opportunity for the UK to show leadership through international cooperation and setting an agenda of ambitious targets for the years ahead, transformational change is possible, but only with a joined up radical new approach.