Natural England has published a major report showing that investment in the natural environment is critical to long term economic prosperity and that natural services provide a highly cost effective solution to growing problems like flood and coastal defence, carbon emissions and the preservation of soil, water and air quality.
“No Charge? Valuing the Natural Environment”, pulls together leading research to show that the economic value of nature now runs to billions of pounds in the UK alone and that there are major savings to be made through looking after it.
– For example, investment in schemes to deliver environmental benefits through farming reduces greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture by some 11%, delivering carbon savings estimated to be worth approximately £180m per year. With agriculture currently accounting for nearly 7% of England’s total greenhouse gas emissions, the reductions are highly significant.
– In the same way, improved management of lowland peat soils would help address an annual loss of carbon estimated to be worth as much as £150 million.
Helen Phillips, Chief Executive of Natural England, said “There is enormous hidden value in the ecological solutions provided by the natural environment. We need to recognise them as among the most highly efficient and cost-effective means of tackling a range of environmental, social and economic problems”.
The report accompanies a major debate hosted yesterday by Natural England and Guardian News & Media at which a range of leading speakers – including Dieter Helm of New College Oxford, Hilary Benn MP, Secretary of State for the Environment, and chair Polly Toynbee – reviewed the central role that investment in the environment has to play in delivering future economic growth and prosperity.
Helen Phillips said: “We cannot truly prosper without a healthy natural environment. It is integral to our health, wellbeing and happiness. Investment is now critical if the environmental services we all depend on are to continue to underpin our future prosperity.”
The No Charge? report reveals how a century of economic innovation and growth has delivered unprecedented prosperity, but has damaged many of the natural systems on which that prosperity ultimately depends. And with climate change projections now suggesting that peak summer temperatures in the UK may rise by as much as 5.4°C within 50 years, a purely technological approach is unlikely to deliver affordable solutions to the multiple challenges we face in the 21st century.
Helen Phillips continued, “The idea that there is a choice to be made between economic success and conservation is a false one and we have to move away from the mindset that regards securing the health of the natural environment as a drag on prosperity and growth. It is abundantly clear that nature’s support services and the way we look after them are fundamental to our economic performance and wellbeing.”
No Charge? – the report
No Charge? looks at a range of natural “ecosystem services” – such as healthy soils, clean water, carbon storage, and flood prevention – that underpin economic growth and deliver natural solutions to 21st century problems. Together they generate billions of pounds of hidden value to the UK economy each year, far outweighing the costs required to sustain them in a healthy, functioning state. For example:
– Environmental Stewardship schemes enable farmers to reduce carbon emissions from agriculture by 3.5m tonnes per year – over a 7 year period this could lead to a carbon saving to the UK economy of approximately £1.25 billion.
– Improved management of peatlands would help prevent approximately 3-5 million tonnes of carbon being lost into the atmosphere each year: a loss that is equal to the annual carbon cost of all the UK’s domestic aviation.
– Our woodlands already remove 15 million tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere, reducing the UK’s annual CO2 emissions by 3%. Relatively small investment in woodland management could yield very large economic gains once these carbon benefits are properly factored in.
– Green spaces transform city life, cooling our cities, filtering out pollutants and having a startling impact on the activity levels of local people. Increasing the exercise levels of just 1 per cent of the UK’s population would deliver nearly £1.5bn in health care savings.
There is huge potential to deliver economic gains from better management of our seas, where substantial public subsidies in the past have contributed to alarming levels of environmental degradation. A network of Marine Conservation Zones – set up to ensure more sustainable management of the marine environment – has the potential to deliver benefits of up to £19 billion. [Link]
