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We are part of Nature, not separate from it. We rely on Nature to provide us with food, water and shelter; regulate our climate and disease; maintain nutrient cycles and oxygen production; and provide us with spiritual fulfilment and opportunities for recreation and recuperation, which can enhance our health and well-being. Nature's constituents such as ecosystems and the biodiversity that are embodied in them are therefore assets. Yet Nature is more than an economic good: many recognise its intrinsic worth and argue that it has moral worth too. This landmark report explains the current state of play in relation to biodiversity loss and outlines a sustainable path to deal with this problem, one that will require us to change how we think, act and measure success. The report was originally commissioned and published by HM Treasury.
Foreword
Preface
Part I. Foundations: How we got to where we are
1. Nature as an asset
2. Biodiversity and ecosystem services
3. Biospheric disruptions
4. Human impact on the biosphere
4*. The bounded global economy
5. Risk and uncertainty
6. Laws and norms as social institutions
7. Human institutions and ecological systems, 1: Unidirectional externalities and regulatory policies
8. Human institutions and ecological systems, 2: Common pool resources
8* Management of CPRs: A formal model
9. Human institutions and ecological systems
10. Well-being across the generations
11. The content of well-being: Empirics
12. Valuing biodiversity
13. Sustainability assessment and policy analysis
13* Accounting prices and inclusive wealth
Part II. Extensions:
14. Distribution and sustainability
15. Trade and the biosphere
16. Demand for provisioning services and its consequences
17. Managing Nature-related financial risk and uncertainty
18. Conservation of Nature
19. Restoration of Nature
20. Finance for sustainable engagement with Nature
Part III. The road ahead
Chapter 21. Options for change
Appendix
Partha Dasgupta is the Frank Ramsey Emeritus Professor of Economics, Chair of the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, and a Fellow of St John's College, all at the University of Cambridge. He was knighted in 2002 for his services to economics, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society, Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences, and Member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. He won the Volvo Environment Prize in 2002, the Blue Planet Prize in 2015 and the Tyler Prize in 2016. The UN Environment Programme named Professor Dasgupta as one of four 2022 Champions of the Earth, the first economist to have been awarded this honour.
