Back to value-ation

IPBES Assessment Report on the Diverse Values and Valuation of Nature

The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is an independent intergovernmental body comprising 139 member governments that provides policymakers with objective scientific assessments about the state of knowledge regarding the planet’s biodiversity, ecosystems and the contributions they make to people, as well as the tools and methods to protect and sustainably use these vital natural assets. Its recent Assessment Report on the Diverse Values and Valuation of Nature is intended to help policymakers better understand the very different ways in which people conceive and value nature. It's not a study determining the value of nature, but rather proposing a very comprehensive frame of reference to value nature. Among other things, the report proposes a standardized ‘values typology’, including the following: (i) worldviews, (ii) knowledge systems, (iii) broad values, (iv) specific values, and (v) value indicators. It further proposes four general perspectives for valuation:

1. Living from nature emphasizes nature’s capacity to provide resources for sustaining livelihoods, needs and wants of people, such as food and material goods.
2. Living with nature has a focus on life ‘other than human’ such as the intrinsic right of fish in a river to thrive independently of human needs.
3. Living in nature refers to the importance of nature as the setting for people’s sense of place and identity.
4. Living as nature sees the natural world as a physical, mental, and spiritual part of oneself.

The report is also a stock-taking exercise, which finds that there are 50 (or so) different methods to assess nature’s values, and that there are many deeply held values that can be aligned with sustainability, emphasizing principles like unity, responsibility, stewardship, and justice, both towards other people and towards nature. However, these values are generally not taken into account by economic and policy decision-makers. The point of the report is that the values of nature must be embedded in the valuation of nature, such that it enables a shift away from predominant values that currently over-emphasize short term and individual material gains and towards sustainability-aligned values across society. In other words, changing how we value nature and the policies that flow from this valuation are some of the necessary conditions for transformative change needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Convention on Biological Diversity’s 2050 Vision for Biodiversity.

“Valuation is an explicit, intentional process in which agreed upon methods are applied to make visible the diverse values that people hold for nature. The type and quality of information obtained from valuation depend on how, why and by whom valuation processes are designed and implemented. The way valuation is conducted, including the methods chosen, is in part determined by power relations in society, which influence which and whose values of nature are recognized and how equitably the benefits and burdens arising from these decisions are distributed. Considering the values of multiple individuals, stakeholders and interest groups at scales beyond the individual is an essential part of valuation.”?        

Read the news release

Read the executive summary

WEF Global Gender Gap Report 2022

The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index benchmarks the current state and evolution of gender parity across four key dimensions:

1. Economic Participation and Opportunity
2. Educational Attainment
3. Health and Survival
4. Political Empowerment

In 2022, the global gender gap has been closed by 68.1%. At the current rate of progress, it will take 132 years to reach full parity. While better than last year (136 years to parity), we still have not recovered from the damaging effects of covid: in 2020, the gender gap was set to close within 100 years. It’s also very interesting to note where the disparities actually lie: mainly in Economic Participation and Opportunity (60.3%) and Political Empowerment (22%) – i.e., wealth and power – despite near equal levels of education (94.4%) and health (95.8%). This report is a sobering reminder that there is still much work to do. It’s a must read for anyone concerned about equity, diversity, and inclusion, which is a very hot topic in corporate sustainability circles these days. So, it’s also worth noting (and no coincidence, I’m sure) that the Business Commission to Tackle Inequality (BCTI) published its first report titled Tackling inequality: The need and opportunity for business action, which shows that inequality is a systemic risk that “business leaders have a responsibility, and an opportunity, to address”. It also provides a call for businesses to:

1. Respect human rights
2. Enhance access to essential products and services
3. Create jobs and economic opportunities for all
4. Distribute value and risk equitably
5. Enable government action
6. Take action on climate and nature

When we consider that the wealthiest 1% of the population hold 38% of the wealth... while the poorest 50% of the population hold only 2%, we can only conclude, once again, that there is still much work to do.

Read the report

NGFS Final report on bridging data gaps

The Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS), which today represents 116 central banks across the globe, released a report highlighting the many challenges to obtaining widely available, quality, and comparable climate-related data, the pressing need to address them, and policy recommendations to do so. It makes for an insightful read for anyone with an interest in climate data. Much of the work is based on the establishment of a climate data directory, which has become a catalogue of available climate-related metrics and data sources based on specific stakeholder use cases. The NGFS sees the directory as a public good and a living tool to foster better dissemination of climate-related data. It’s currently working to develop a new website and identify possible long-term solutions for updating the directory. Perhaps most noteworthy is the NGFS’s ringing endorsement of the IFRS Foundation’s efforts to achieve a common and consistent set of global disclosure standards, for those disclosures to be mandatory – including for private companies – and for them to be externally assured. It’s also interesting to note the recommendation to harmonize taxonomies and classifications across the globe to foster data interoperability.

Read the report