Scoping towards an Economic Case for Biodiversity

This project builds on 'The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review' published by HM Treasury in February 20211, with a view to strengthening the economic case for biodiversity.

Whilst there have been some helpful studies on nature and biodiversity such as the World Bank Group's 'The Economic Case for Nature', 2 further work is needed to address the remaining gaps and ensure the economic evidence is robust and compelling to shape an ambitious post-2020 global biodiversity framework and other international agreements.

In particular, evidence gaps remain in accounting for how biodiversity ecosystems decline affect a variety of social and economic issues such as GDP growth, poverty, health, food security and energy security. Given the many interlinkages of these impacts, the methodological approaches in assessing these are not understood well. More clarity is needed to evaluate the existing economic tools and their ability to effectively measure the impacts, and where additional qualitative analysis may be needed.

Aims and Objectives

The aim of this scoping project is to identify the requirements for a comprehensive study that presents a robust economic case for the scale of intervention needed to address biodiversity loss at the global level. This will include:

• Defining the gaps in evidence and data linking the economic impacts of biodiversity and ecosystems decline, in the UK and globally.

• Exploring the different methodological approaches for investigating the cost of inaction on global biodiversity loss on UK GDP.

• Evaluating the ability of available economic tools and models to measure the impact

3 See The Dasgupta Review, Chapter 13: The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review (publishing.service.gov.uk)

4 See: Biodiversity-and-financial-stablity_building-the-case-for-action.pdf (lse.ac.uk) and World Bank Document of halting and reversing biodiversity loss and restoring ecosystems on economic growth.

• The qualitative impacts of halting and reversing biodiversity loss and restoring ecosystems on health and societal wellbeing.