The Dasgupta Review: Economics of Biodiversity

Landmark report says GDP should be ditched as a measure of wealth and nature valued to protect wildlife and humans-

• The UK Government has issued a report from the Independent Review on the Economics of Biodiversity led by Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta.

• About half of global GDP – some $44 trillion – depends on nature. Biodiversity, the report says, enables nature to be “productive, resilient, and adaptable.”

• Dasgupta calls for an accounting system that values natural assets on par with produced capital and human capital.

• The Dasgupta review concludes: “To detach nature from economic reasoning is to imply that we consider ourselves to be external to nature. The fault is not in economics; it lies in the way we have chosen to practice it. Transformative change is possible – we and our descendants deserve nothing less.”

Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/final-report-the-economics-of-biodiversity-the-dasgupta-review & https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/02/economics-of-biodiversity-review-what-are-the-recommendations