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Natural Wealth
Part of the difference is that economic results are reported regularly and
publicly to Parliament. For nature to do the same, we need targets and
milestones for the long-term plan, combined with regular and prominent
reporting on progress. Every year, alongside the Budget Statement, the
Government should deliver a “Natural Wealth Statement”. When we account
for monetary wealth, we should also account for our natural wealth.
Of course, we will never be able to give an economic value to all of the
wonders of nature and nor should we try. It will always be worth saving
nature for its own sake. At the moment, though, the value of nature is
often taken to be £0—it is completely ignored in decision-making.
A natural wealth approach is one way to help ensure that we afford
nature the protection and investment it deserves.
Even a ripple in UK economic fortunes causes
a furore. Why is it, then, that nature targets can
come and go unremarked? It is certainly not that
people are unconcerned. When the environment
is on the agenda, the public is ardent in its green
commitment: over half a million people recently
signed a petition to defend the EU Nature Directives.
But the UK continues to perform poorly on a host
of environmental measures: internationally binding
biodiversity targets; air quality laws; flood risk
management; and water quality.