Group items tagged

Pavan Sukhdev, head of UNEP's Green Economy Initiative and lead author of the 2010 Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) study, tells Scidev.Net that the commission's report will in part be aimed at businesses preparing to exploit the high seas with new technologies.

"There is no point in asking for change at a macro or sector level without also targeting change at the agent level. We have a serious agency problem. Corporations are 60% of GDP and 70% of global employment and left to themselves, 'Corporation 1920' type companies are unlikely to create the green economy. As the saying goes, turkeys don't vote for Christmas.

In the world of Corporation 2020, financial leverage would be limited by regulations that align corporate interests better with societal goals such as financial and economic stability. At present, this task is left largely to investors, with fund managers becoming the unlikely conscience-keepers of society. This is an unwise situation, to say the least.

the imposition of taxes on resource extraction, for businesses to be transparent about their impacts on society, and the creation of rules to make companies more accountable in the way they advertise products and services.

What is a sip of clean water worth? Is there economic value in the shade of a tree? And how much would you pay for a breath of fresh air?

That study, started in 2007, has estimated the world economy suffers roughly $2.5 trillion to $4 trillion in losses every year due to environmental degradation. That's up to 7 percent of global GDP.