Natural Capital

In the lead up to the Biodiversity Day, our latest blog from one of the GGKP Natural Capital Expert Group members, Anil Markandya, highlights the critical needs to invest on nature in order to meet the SDGs. According to a recent study by the GGKP and the Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3), globally it is estimated that, additionally, about $774 billion/year is required to meet the selected targets for the eight natural capital-related SDGs by 2030.

Do you have any question about the study? Reach out to John J. Maughan, Sun Cho, or Andrew Pickens

To address water management challenges, these cities use nature-based-solutions

Rwanda, a growing country in Sub-Saharan Africa, has suffered significant damage to its environment over the last few decades, and has begun using policy to reverse this trend. Though aggressive strategies have achieved some success, growing social, environmental, and economic constraints have made increasing the effectiveness of these strategies critical.

Here's a policy brief outlining how various policy interventions can affect economic, poverty amelioration, and environmental outcomes in Rwanda.

Cities Turning to Blue-Green Infrastructure

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), in collaboration with Valuing Nature, launched the "Corporate natural capital accounting - from building blocks to a path for standardization" report, as a contribution to the EU Life funded Transparent project. It looks at a critical point on how business impacts and depends upon nature, and how to truly value natural capital in our decision-making.

Two interesting webinars on natural capital to look out for this month:

12 May: The Capitals Coalition is hosting a webinar on "Valuing Natural Capital & Local Communities for Business in Eastern & Southern Africa: Capitals Impacts and Dependencies of the Tourism Industry". URL: https://www.greengrowthknowledge.org/webinar/valuing-natural-capital-an…

25 May: Stanford University and Natural Capital Project are co-hosting a webinar on "Advances in land-use planning in the Amazon". URL: https://www.greengrowthknowledge.org/webinar/stanford-university-natura…

According to an emerging analysis by Vivid Economics, for every single euro invested through the EU member states' National Resilience and Recovery Plans, only less than 2 cents benefit nature. This is a huge missed opportunity for jobs, economic stimulus, emission reductions and biodiversity gains - in contrast to what the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen has described the EU Recovery Plans as "the opportunity of the century". Despite a wide array of available reports, tools, and guidance, there is still much work to be done in order to convince decision-makers of the significant benefits that climate-positive and nature-based solutions can offer as part of their recovery plans.

Greening the Skyline with Green Roofs

New report, “Corporate natural capital accounting – from building blocks to a path for standardization”, provides an overview of corporate natural capital accounting resources and applications and identifies best practices, challenges and standardization opportunities.