Natural capital went from overlooked to unstoppable

illuminem

March 26, 2025

https://illuminem.com/illuminemvoices/natural-capital-went-from-overlooked-to-unstoppable

“We are facing a global crisis. We are totally dependent upon the natural world. It supplies us with every oxygen-laden breath we take and every mouthful of food we eat. But we are currently damaging it so profoundly that many of its natural systems are now on the verge of breakdown”: Wrote David Attenborough in his foreword to The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review.

The ‘Review’ released in early 2021 reminded, as Dr. Partha Dasgupta explains, about “Nature’s worth to society – the true value of the various goods and services it provides – is not reflected in market prices because much of it is open to all at no monetary charge. These pricing distortions have led us to invest relatively more in other assets, such as produced capital, and underinvest in our natural assets… Many of our institutions have proved unfit to manage the externalities. Governments almost everywhere exacerbate the problem by paying people more to exploit Nature than to protect it, and to prioritise unsustainable economic activities…