The Economic Case for Nature, Events this month, Nature Photography Day

In this Month's Newsletter:

• The Economic Case for Nature now published!

  • Investment in nature recovery leads to £81 billion in economic benefits – and so much more 

• Participating in events across nature, climate and economic decision-making

  • From boardrooms to markets, nature is informing decisions

• Our contributions to Nature Photography Day

  • Not just valuing nature in numbers, but enjoying it through our lens

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The Economic Case for Nature now published!

Investment in nature recovery leads to £81 billion in economic benefits – and so much more

Rob Fraser, Somewhere Nowhere

“For our economy to thrive, we need a thriving natural world”, wrote Dougie Peedle, RSPB Head of Nature Positive Economy. The evidence supporting this statement is mounting. RSPB commissioned eftec to provide additional evidence to make the economic case for investment in nature recovery.

Our report “The Economic Case for Nature” showed that investing £59 billion in nature recovery over 10 years could:

• Lead to £81 billion of direct economic output with specific impacts depending on funding policy adopted. 

• Support 80,000 long-term, skilled and productive jobs, including in local communities with fewer economic opportunities. 

• Produce substantial wider benefits, including enhanced public health from improved air quality and access to the environment. The positive benefit cost ratios identified for nature-related spend range from 4:1 - 30:1.

• Mitigate a range of economic damages (£1 billion per year to 2050).

Finally, the report demonstrated potential UK export benefits:

• 23% growth in UK nature-related business from 2023-2024, with close to 900 businesses estimated to generate revenues of £2.2 billion and employ 21,445 workers in 2024 (Bloomberg, 2025); and

• Establishment of the UK as a leader in nature recovery research and policy, could create 2 export jobs for every 3 UK-market jobs.

You can download the full report from the RSPB’s website.

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Participating in events across nature, climate

and economic decision-making

 From boardrooms to markets,

nature is informing decisions

This month, colleagues contributed to discussions on how nature, climate and economic decision-making are evolving across policy, business and finance.

Our CEO, Ece Ozdemiroglu, was a panellist at the Institute of Sustainability and Environmental Professionals’ (ISEP) and Aldersgate Group’s webinar: Placing nature on the board agenda. Ece shared how the narrative around nature has shifted from ‘compliance at the least cost’ to ‘nature as an asset’ that financial success of a business depends on, and how natural capital accounting helps organisations identify how to invest in what matters most, measure returns and monitor and report them.

Director of Chemicals Policy, Thea Sletten, was invited to speak at a European Metals workshop for industry associations on the role of socio-economic analysis and exposure assessment in EU Occupational Exposure Limit (OEL) setting. Thea presented eftec’s work for the Cobalt Institute, developed to support the Carcinogens, Mutagens or Reprotoxic Substances Directive (CMRD) process for cobalt and cobalt substances. The presentation highlighted how industry evidence can be brought into socio-economic assessment from understanding how substances are used in practice to assessing the implications of different limit values and dealing with practical challenges of data gaps and uncertainty.

Ece was a presenter at Royal Holloway College’s Centre for Research into Sustainability’s (CRIS) festival of science session, ‘Climate Justice: Provocations and New Directions’. The session discussed climate justice, including themes of power and inequality, governance, public engagement, and the future of climate justice. Ece talked about the interconnections between climate, nature and poverty, and highlighted how climate change impacts are expected to increase household costs for all, but especially for the most vulnerable. She demonstrated cases where investment in nature results in positive outcomes for people and planet, and highlighted key messages from the CCC’s latest Well Adapted UK report.  

Consultant Victoria Reeser attended an event by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) which was part of London Climate Action Week. The event brought together investors, policymakers, market developers, conservation organisations and practitioners from around the world. The focus was how to build high-integrity nature markets that can attract finance and deliver benefits for nature. Victoria reflected that the running agreement across business representatives to international policy experts was the same: nature is a vital asset underpinning economic activity, and investment in nature was an investment in resilience.

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Our contributions to Nature Photography Day

Not just valuing nature in numbers, but enjoying it through our lens

June 15^th was Nature Photography Day, and the team celebrated in the only way one can: by sharing photos of nature that made us pause, capture, and wonder.

Reading from left to right, this is what we shared:

1. A Muscovy duck cooling down in Mallorca

2. View from Lake Geneva

3. A female stag beetle residing in a London garden

4. FCERM in action in Hastings

5. A bed of mussels in Cornwall

6. White rhinos in South Africa

 We hope these photos offer some proof that, while we economists may often be found at our desks, we still make time to enjoy nature too.