Economics for Nature Initiative

Economics for Nature (E4N) was a six year programme that ran from 2017 to 2022.  It was led by the Green Economy Coalition and its partners, the Green Growth Knowledge Partnership, the Capitals Coalition and WWF France. The project’s aim was to encourage robust natural capital approaches and support the internalisation of the value of nature in development, economic, spatial and green growth planning processes. 

The initiative convened experts, academics, and decision-makers from the policy, business and finance communities to build consensus around mainstreaming natural capital in green growth planning.

The collaboration within the E4N partnership delivered three key outputs: (1) A stronger knowledge base, (2) increased connections across different stakeholders, and (3) a rich collection of best practices that show how assessing impacts and dependencies on natural capital can inform decision-making towards a green economy. These three outputs have significantly contributed to the integration of natural capital in decision-making processes by business, finance and governments and also investment in development planning. 

Over the course of 6 years, the E4N project published 25+ reports, held 10+ events and webinars and shared 60+ insights. A summary of the E4N experience can be found here and the final programme evaluation here.  

E4N Highlights: 

• Events
  • High-Level Media Debate at the 2019 PAGE Ministerial Conference
  • African Forum on Green Economy 
  • Africa Green Economy Conference: Innovative Pathways for a Nature-Positive Future from Policy, Business, and Finance  
• Research
  • The Natural Capital Gap and the SDGs: Costs and Benefits of Meeting the Targets in Twenty Countries  
  • The 3Returns Framework: A method for decision-making towards sustainable landscapes  
  • The Wealth of Nature: Increasing national wealth and reducing risk by measuring and managing natural capital
  • Post-COVID Economic Recovery and Natural Capital: Lessons from Brazil, France, India, and Uganda 
  •  Setting a structural agenda for a green economic recovery from COVID-19
  • Nature Positive Economies: Progress, lessons and next frontiers 
• Insights
  • 30+ voices for nature positive economies. How do we govern our economies to protect and restore nature?
  • Plugging the natural capital financing gap to meet the SDGs 
  • Creating a race-to-the-top for a resilient economy
  • Creating a new nature-positive economy: Seizing the COVID opportunity
  • Transformative change: the best chance for biodiversity?
  • Tools for achieving the UN decade on ecosystem restoration