Biodiversity, natural capital and the economy

Abstract

This document has been prepared by the OECD Environment Directorate and the Trade and Agriculture Directorate. It was requested by the United Kingdom, in its role as the 2021 G7 President, to help inform the discussions of G7 Finance, Economic and Environment Ministries. The report was prepared by Edward Perry, Geraldine Ang, William Symes, Katia Karousakis and Simon Buckle, under the leadership of Simon Buckle and Julia Nielson. The authors would like to gratefully acknowledge the input and feedback received from colleagues across the OECD, namely

Recent advances in availability and synthesis of the economic costs of biological invasions

“…For the general category, a policy guide prepared by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development on aligning budgetary and fiscal policy with biodiversity goals for G7 and other countries (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development 2021 ) cited Diagne and colleagues (2021a) . The report was designed to inform finance, economic, and environment ministries, emphasizing the massive global economic costs of biological invasions, and outlining the transformative changes required to slow biodiversity loss.…”

Ten new insights in climate science 2021: a horizon scan

“…Critical for agriculture, forestry and food sectors, nature provides significant benefits for human health by supporting climate change mitigation and increasing resilience (Johnson & Gerber, 2021); however, only in limited cases have these been valued in economic terms (Fisher et al, 2021;Lawler et al, 2020). Biodiversity losses due to climate change lead to reductions in services provided by nature to society (reduced crop yields and nutrition, fish catches, losses from flooding and erosion, and loss of potential new sources of medicine (Applequist et al, 2020;Ebi et al, 2021;OECD, 2021)), with implied significant welfare costs running into billions of USD.…”