Supply and demand
Earlier this year, The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review, commissioned by
the UK Treasury, was published. In this study, I sought to show how
economics has overlooked Nature. Combining what we know about the biosphere
from earth sciences and ecology, the Review sets out a framework
for including Nature in our economic thinking and provides a guide for
change through three broad, interconnected transitions.
The first is to ensure that our demands on Nature do not exceed its supply.
What we demand of Nature (what some term our “ecological footprint”) has
for some decades far exceeded Nature’s ability to meet those demands on a
sustainable basis, with the result that the biosphere is being degraded at
an alarming rate.
This persistent demand overshoot is endangering the prosperity of current
and future generations, fueling significant risk for our economies and
well-being. Technological innovations—for example, those geared toward
sustainable food production—have an important role to play in ensuring that
our demands on Nature do not exceed its supply.
But if we are to avoid exceeding the limits of what Nature can provide
while meeting the needs of the human population, consumption and production
patterns must be fundamentally restructured as well. Policies that change
prices and behavioral norms—for example, by aligning environmental
objectives along entire supply chains and enforcing standards for reuse,
recycling, and sharing—can accelerate efforts to break the links between
damaging forms of consumption and production and the natural environment.
Human population growth has significant implications for our demands on
Nature, including for future patterns of global consumption. Support for
community-based family planning can shift preferences and behavior and
accelerate demographic transition, as can improving women’s access to
finance, information, and education.
