Prince calls for price on nature
The Prince of Wales backed a U.K. government review that calls for an urgent overhaul of economic metrics so that they take account of the price of damaging natural ecosystems.
The review was authored by Partha Dasgupta, an economist who specializes in environmental research. In 600 pages, the University of Cambridge professor argues that decades of unprecedented economic growth came at the expense of the planet’s rich diversity, a tradeoff that’s unsustainable as humans cannot survive without the natural world.
Dasgupta said humanity has collectively mismanaged its global portfolio of assets, meaning the demands on nature far exceed its capacity to supply the goods and services it relies on. While living standards are higher than ever, species are becoming extinct 100 to 1,000 times faster. Humanity would need the resources of 1.6 planet Earths to maintain our way of life in the future.
Speaking at the launch of the report on Tuesday, Prince Charles said he hoped the review would spur world leaders to adopt a target to protect at least 30 per cent of earth’s land and oceans by 2030. Environmental campaigners are calling for a deal to be made at a global biodiversity summit hosted by the Chinese government in May.
“We must not merely account for shareholder profits but also corporate impacts, both on natural and human capital that are so crucial for our societies and economies to thrive,” he said.
The review was commissioned in 2019 by former chancellor of the exchequer Philip Hammond, who instructed Dasgupta to study the “economics of biodiversity.” Almost two years later, he concluded that governments must put an end to annual subsidies ranging from $4 trillion to $6 trillion that perpetuate harm to the environment. In contrast, he said, governments spend just $68 billion a year protecting biodiversity.
Dasgupta said assigning absolute monetary values to nature would be meaningless because life would simply cease to exist if it was destroyed. The IndianBritish economist called on governments to find an alternative to GDP as a way of measuring wealth, warning it is “wholly unsuitable” for ensuring sustainable development.
“Truly sustainable economic growth and development means recognizing that our long-term prosperity relies on rebalancing our demand of nature’s goods and services with its capacity to supply them,” he said.
“It also means accounting fully for the impact of our interactions with nature across all levels of society. COVID-19 has shown us what can happen when we don’t do this.”