Tracking investment in biodiversity, envecon conference, natural capital thinking
- eftec
- 7 hours ago
- 3 min read
In this Month's Newsletter:
Tracking Investment for Biodiversity
Measuring government expenditure on biodiversity targets
envecon registration is open for 20 March!
See the agenda and how you can join
Spreading the word on natural capital thinking
Events organised by private, public and third sectors coming up
Tracking Investment for Biodiversity
Measuring government expenditure on biodiversity targets
eftec developed an approach enabling the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) to monitor public expenditure toward achieving biodiversity-related goals and targets in the Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP23) in England. The approach complied an evidence base of publicly available expenditure reporting and created a tracker tool to assess how actual and budgeted expenditure compares with the funding needed to deliver EIP23 biodiversity targets both in a given year and over time. We found that public expenditure for biodiversity in England was £7 billion in 2024/25, compared to the £20 billion of the estimated need over the same period. Given that expenditure in one goal often contributes to achieving another, this could be an underestimate. This result was referenced in the OEP’s 2024/25 report on the government’s progress towards EIP23 goals as part of cross-cutting thematic analysis of Government accountability on credible and transparent public nature investments. The review of the evidence revealed a lack of clarity on how the money flows between organisations that fund biodiversity actions and lack of expenditure evidence in specific areas like marine and coastal biomes, improving chemical status and preventing future invasive species. Our report to OEP can be found here Image source: Rob Fraser, Somewhere Nowhere |
envecon registration is open for 20 March!
See the agenda and how you can join
envecon this year has two main aims.
The first is in the name – to keep nature in the conversation. We are living in a time when the world is grappling with rising tensions, potential armed conflicts and cost of living crises. Even those decision makers who are aware of the economic importance of nature are finding it difficult to make the argument.
The second is to honour two leaders in environmental economics, Prof Willis (d. 2025) and Prof Pearce (d. 2005). They inspired many of us to enter - and stay - in this profession. They tirelessly and innovatively repeated the message that, without nature, there is no life, no economy, no growth. They also understood that solutions lie in collaboration with others and that the economist’s role is to draw together insights from multiple disciplines to build cohesive and comprehensive arguments. This year’s programme will show the strength of economic evidence, we will learn about tools to improve how we communicate that evidence and we will renew our shared commitment, energy and sense of camaraderie across the network.
Keynote speaker: Prof Anjali Goswani Chief Scientific Adviser and Director General Science, Data and Analysis at Defra
Programme highlights
Session 1: Professor Ken Willis session on next frontier on economic valuation - biodiversity
Session 2: Professor David Pearce session on economics for environmental policy
Session 3: Net Zero for Agriculture: behavioural and economic levers for a just transition
Session 4: Nature in conversation with other policy areas
Session 5: Bridging the divide: Routes to land economic messages in Westminster
View the agenda here
Purchase tickets here
For group bookings please email [email protected]
Spreading the word on natural capital thinking
Events organised by private, public and third sectors coming up
From embedding natural capital into organisational decision-making, to valuing freshwater and marine ecosystems at national and sectoral scales, these approaches help translate environmental change into information that decision-makers can act on. It is for this reason that we were delighted to announce these upcoming events:
On 27 January at 10am (GMT), Ece Ozdemiroglu and Ian Dickie will present at a BSI webinar on the BS ISO 14054:2025 Natural Capital Accounting for Organizations. They will share practical tools and actionable insights on how to embed natural capital accounting into strategy for both private and public organisations. Follow here to register for the event.
On 9 February at 5:15pm, Principal Consultants, Mark Collar and Natalya Kharadi, will be presenters at the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee meeting “Ocean Science” (hosted by National Oceanography Centre).
On 12 February at 12pm, Ian Dickie, will be a discussant at the Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE Webinar “Compiling natural capital accounts for the UK: Accounts for freshwater as an example”. Follow this link to register for the event.