UN’s new framework to include nature’s ‘contributions’ in measuring prosperity | India News – Times of India
The framework, adopted by the UN Statistical Commission on Wednesday, would ensure that “natural capital” — forests, wetlands and other ecosystems — are counted in reporting wealth of countries. A school of economists has for some time argued that environmental capital be considered a factor of production just like labour and capital. They have said if environmental degradation is measured, the “real growth” of a country would be apparent.
Though India, China, UK, France, Germany and many other European countries have already made some progress in implementing the System of Environmental Economic Accounting (SEEA), the adoption of new framework will push the others, including the US, towards figuring out worth of their natural ecosystems and including it in accounting processes.
“This is a historic step forward towards transforming how we view and value nature,” said UN secretary-general António Guterres.
The new framework — the System of Environmental Economic Accounting-Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA-EA) — goes beyond the commonly used statistic of GDP in economic reporting. It means the countries’ wealth will reflect dependency of the economy on nature or its impact on it, such as the deterioration of water quality or the loss of a forest. Similarly, restoration or conservation may be a “credit” that lessens the loss to GDP.
The question of sustainable growth confronts us like never before. Creating a new methodology to calculate prosperity and human well-being by including environment-related aspects is timely. In times of global warming, it will push countries towards paying more attention to protect the natural world.
India had taken a step towards measuring values of nature when it figured out economic valuation of 16 tiger reserves as part of a conservation plan in two phases during 2013-19. The study indicates that the monetary value of flow benefits from the selected 10 tiger reserves range from Rs 5,094-16,202 crore annually.
Incidentally, the Supreme Court too recently sought to look at valuation of trees that get felled for infrastructure project.
