"Let's get serious about true economic balance sheet"

Nature degradation is a bigger brake on economic development than the COVID outbreak, say environmental experts at LJMU.

Dr Colm Bowe, Reader in Environment and Sustainability, says today’s warning from the United Nations that the UK and other economies are misaligned for the survival of humankind, is a true and frank assessment, which politicians should hear.

António Guterres says the world’s accounting systems should place true value on the environment and the global economy must be radically transformed to stop it rewarding pollution and waste.

Speaking to the Guardian after the UN hosted a meeting of leading global economists, Guterres said humanity’s future required the urgent overhaul of the world’s “existing accounting systems” which were “driving the planet to the brink of disaster”.

Welcome message

Welcoming the message, Dr Bowe, one of the UK’s leading experts specialising in putting a value on nature and the environment, said it was not too late to recognise the limitation of measures such as Gross Domestic Product.

“We must have ways of measuring the costs to society of producing the goods and services that we need.

“If we can measure them, we can account for them and cut them and do things like shift costs to fund restoration of the environment.”

Dr Bowe heads a unique applied research unit – The Natural Capital Hub – which works with agencies, landowners and government departments to assess the costs of economic activities or investments in conservation, such as the Mersey Forest.

Reports and models

A recent report by the Hub assessed Britain’s largest reforestation scheme, underlining the vital role of trees in the nation’s economic and environmental future.

The UK government’s top priority is also to grow GDP to create jobs and revenue to pay for public services and welfare.

But the LJMU researchers say bald GDP figures mask much of the true account of human activity: “The impacts of nature degradation will only show in GDP only when things like  flooding, wildfires or poor health of our populations start impacting on  economic productivity.

“We only have to look at the UK government 2024 State of Natural Capital report which revealed that England’s natural capital, and the services it provides, is at medium to high risk.

“Even starker, the Green Finance Institute has highlighted that nature degradation threatens up to 12% of the UK GDP—more than the impact of COVID-19 and comparable to climate change.

“In short, activities which have an overall net negative impact on society may show as positive in GDP terms.”

LJMU’s Natural Capital Hub working with Nature North, LCR and other stakeholders seeks to embed natural capital thinking in policy and decision-making. It provides modelling, data and mapping, through identifying mechanisms for investment in nature and by proving training, and knowledge transfer.