Biodiversity loss is not just an 'environmental' problem - Treasury
A new UK Treasury report demonstrates how our consumption is coming at a devastating cost to the ecosystems that sustain us all and proves we need to move beyond outdated ideas that protecting the natural world comes at a “cost”.
Spending now to protect our natural life support system is an investment with the highest returns: a sustainable future for humanity.
Founder
and Environmental Justice Foundation Executive Director Steve Trent
says:
“It is great to see the Treasury and not The
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is
publishing this report as this demonstrates that the destruction of
nature is not just an 'environmental' problem.
“Now
government and business leaders must act.”
The report, led
by Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta, presents the first comprehensive
economic framework of its kind for biodiversity. It calls for urgent
and transformative change in how we think, act and measure economic
success to protect and enhance our prosperity and the natural world.
Steve
Trent says:
“Spending
now will protect us from the far higher future costs of catastrophic
biodiversity loss and climate breakdown.
“Accompanying
this must be a much deeper, much better-informed understanding of the
multiple economic and social benefits that will arise from the
wholescale switch to a zero-carbon economy and the effective
protection of our natural environment.
“Governments
must lead the transition to sustainability and in doing so, harness
the power of the marketplace and the energy and ingenuity of
business. This transition must take people and society with it,
exploding the myth that protecting our natural world always comes at
a cost. The cost of inaction is far greater.”
“This is
the defining issue of our time, and we demand bold leadership which
recognises the intertwined crises of climate, biodiversity, and human
rights and implements meaningful policies to address them together.”
The
sixth mass extinction is underway and progressing rapidly. The
average loss of vertebrate species over the last century is up to 100
times higher
than the background rate, and this conservative estimate is likely to
understate the extent of the problem.
The
reasons for this unprecedented wave of extinction are numerous.
Habitat
loss,
overfishing,
pollution
and the commercial
wildlife trade
are driving up the risk of extinction.
Climate breakdown is
changing
habitats
on every part of the planet, and species which cannot
keep up
with the pace of warming are at risk of being lost.