Market Based Green Growth: Natural Capital and Sustainable Economic Growth (Videos)

Green growth that factors natural capital can drive competitiveness and power innovation for generations. Resource productivity alone is a $3 trillion opportunity. We must start with the understanding that the  choice between the economy and the environment is a false choice. As demonstrated by countries like Germany, we can increase our productivity while decreasing our emissions. To green our economies we must determine the true economic value of our resources which means we must ensure that markets factor the environmental costs of a product or service.

The Monetary Value of Toronto's Trees

There is growing interest in efforts to assign a price to nature and a new report quantifies the dollar value of trees in the city of Toronto. According to a report from the TD Bank released on Monday June 9, trees in Canada's largest city are worth about $700 each. Together Toronto's 10 million trees are valued at around $7 billion.

"Urban forests do more than beautify the scenery," the TD bank's chief economist Craig Alexander said. "They represent an important investment in environmental condition, human health and the overall quality of life."

UNEP's NCD Roadmap: Implementing the Four Commitments of the Natural Capital Declaration

In May, 2013, the United Nations Environment Program Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) released a plan for financial leadership in natural capital. The Natural Capital Declaration (NCD) Roadmap is titled "Implementing the Four Commitments of the Natural Capital Declaration." The Roadmap marks the start of Phase ll of the NCD.

The core objectives of Phase ll of the NCD are to

1. Stimulate Financial Institutions that have signed up to the NCD to show progress towards implementing the NCD commitments.

2. Develop practical tools and metrics to integrate natural capital in all asset calsses and rlevant financial products.

3. Increase the number of signatories so as to build a greater level of acknowledgement within the financial sector about the materiality of natural capital.

UNEP's Natural Capital Declaration (NCD)

To help advance global sustainability efforts, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) launched the Natural Capital Declaration (NCD) in 2011. This initiative seeks to responsibly manage the Earths biodiversity by attaching a price to the elements of the natural world. It takes the form of a commitment intended for the financial sector which seeks to integrate financial capital criteria into financial products and services. See the text of the NCD below:

Video - Pricing Nature is Far Harder than you Think

While there is a lot of interest in market based solutions to price nature, it is far harder in practice than it would appear in theory. This short animation from Joss Tantram, partner at UK sustainability strategy firm Terrafiniti, LLP, explains in very simple terms some of the problems associated with pricing ecosystems.

Rhino Horn Economics: The Perils of Putting a Price on Nature

A number of market based solutions have been advanced to address dwindling biological diversity and the loss of healthy eco-systems. Efforts to save the rhino serve as a model to explore some of these approaches. Rhinos are one of the largest living land mammals and they symbolize humans’ deleterious impacts on the natural world.

Rhinos are being hunted to extinction for their horns, which are considered to be a magical cure-all in some traditional Asian cultures. The trade in rhino horn is currently illegal, but one approach to address this problem strives to indulge the demand by farming them. The advantage to this approach is that the horn can be removed without killing the animal, thereby protecting the animal from extinction.