Loss of nature a greater problem than climate change

by Alice C Doyle

Our philosophy is to encourage the use of Fair Trade and environmentally sound products. Over the weekend, it was widely reported how the loss of our natural resources is becoming a greater threat than climate change.

The Stern Report, released in 2006, was ground breaking in applying an economic cost to the natural environment. The message was clear; there was an urgent need for all of us to change our energy-guzzling behaviour. The estimated global cost of limiting climate change was costed at 1-2% of our global output whilst the economic benefits would be 5-20 times that amount. With climate change costed in GDP by an internationally respected economist, the global community sat up and took note.

UN Biodiversity Report, TEEB 2010

This summer the UN’s Biodiversity report, dubbed the Stern for Nature is due to be released. It calls for a series of measure to protect the natural world and that the decline of species is now outweighing problems posed by climate change.

The publication by the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (Teeb) project, heralds a revolutionary sea change in our attitudes towards the natural environment. Traditionally, the natural capital that we depend upon has been excluded from economic models. Global finance has focussed purely upon material assets, business capital and profits. Natural services on which we depend as a species, such as clean air and water, flood control, drainage, medicines, fertile soils to pollination by the humble bumble bee, have been neglected and not factored into economic accounting. As our natural services have not been afforded an economic value, we have been plundering the global commons to our own detriment.

The outcome of the Teeb Project is that the real cost of damaging nature, is 10-100 times greater than the cost of maintaining it. This assessment is ground breaking in applying an economic value to natures’ services and calling for natural accounting to be central to business practise.

Community backing

The report advocates a series of measures. These include paying communities to conserve nature, placing strict limits on companies that use extract natural resources and asking the business community to account for their use of natural resources alongside their financial reporting. Other arguments include getting rid of subsidies that are environmentally damaging and rewarding beneficial activities that maintain natural ecosystems. This could include factoring in the costs of environmental damage within the purchase price of goods which would encourage a market for more environmentally benign products. Overall these suggestions could enforce a strategic change in global policy as well as cement the market for environmentally sound purchasing.

Avoiding mass extinction

With the world undergoing a mass extinction event with species becoming extinct at a rate of 1,000 to 10,000 times higher than it would naturally without humans, the UNs forthcoming report might be the wakeup call we all need. We depend upon our natural environment to provide us with our most essential necessities. The UN’s call to make the natural environment central to the economy and consumer choice is a huge turning point and a step forward in conserving the planet upon which we depend.