Germany commits to establishing methods for economic valuation of environmental damage and the provision of best-practice cost rates for drivers and impacts of environmental damage. The commitment falls under the focus areas 1 and 2 of the Batumi Initiative to improve the measurement and valuation of natural capital, promote the internationalisation of externalities and the sustainable use of natural capital. The commitment will result in the establishment of a decision support tool to estimate the economic benefit of environmental policy measures and to call attention to the cost of failure to protect the environment. The tool will inform policy makers on the national, regional and local level about environmental damage costs of policy alternatives. In addition, the commitment will result in the introduction of cost rates for environmental damage into legislative impact assessments and internalization of environmental costs into decision makings.
The commitment falls under focus areas 1 and 2 of the Batumi Initiative to improve the measurement and valuation of natural capital and promote the internalisation of externalities and the sustainable use of natural capital.
Implementing partners include Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB), Federal Environment Agency (UBA), and several research institutions.
The commitment is relevant to SDG targets 12.7, 12.8, 13.2, 15.1, 15.2, and 15.9.