Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
Tim Jackson contributing author of IPBES report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (Ch 6: Options for Decision Makers)
May 2019
In 2019, the United Nations Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) published a comprehensive review of biodiversity. With Prof Tim Jackson as contributing author to Chapter 6 ‘Options for Decision Makers‘, the review recognises that ‘a key element of more sustainable future policies is the evolution of global financial and economic systems to build a global sustainable economy, steering away from the current limited paradigm of economic growth’.
The IPBES Global Assessment on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services is composed of a Summary for Policymakers (SPM), approved by the IPBES Plenary at its 7th session in May 2019 in Paris, France (IPBES-7); and a set of six Chapters, accepted by the IPBES Plenary.
“The existing economic system of capital-intensive exploitation of nature, extensive international trade and their tele-couplings, and wide-ranging inequality between countries and between peoples within countries, is not a system that is natural or to which there is no alternative”, the report states, “to the contrary, such an economic system has evolved over time due to human interventions, institutions, policy choices and options, and as such, can be transformed just as it was created. .. More transformative options like creating circular economies, moving to degrowth and steady-state economic paradigms, tackling inequality, and revamping the way we finance and prioritise conservation of nature and biodiversity will require concerted efforts from a range of decision makers, with national governments, private corporations and international institutions leading the way. Designing such an integrated world economy that values nature and its contributions in pluralistic ways, recognises their long-term importance to human quality of life, and rightfully prioritises them as public goods above private profit is a long-term vision that will require innovative, imaginative and adaptive ways to transform our current economic and governance systems.”
The full set of documents can be accessed through the IPBES website. Chapter 6 can be accessed via https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3832107. If you have difficulties accessing the material, please be in touch: info@cusp.ac.uk.
