Pushpam Kumar

Pushpam Kumar is Senior Economic Advisor for UN Environment. In the past he has worked as the Chief, Ecosystem Services Economics Unit, during 2010-2015 and as Coordinator, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Branch during 2015-16 in the Ecosystems Division, the UN Environment. He has been instrumental in designing, implementing and providing leadership to the operationalization of the concept of Natural Capital through flagship projects like VANTAGE (Valuation and Accounting of Natural Capital for Green Economy) and Proecoserv, culminating in a resolution on Natural Capital passed during UNEA2 in 2016. Currently, he provides leadership to a number of initiatives. He is Report Director for Economics of Land Degradation (Africa and Asia); coordinates the Inclusive Wealth Report and provides analytical approaches for Planetary and Human Health. Pushpam Kumar is Report Director for the TEEB Agri Food Foundation Report.

 

In the past, Pushpam has served as a member of the Expert Panel of the National Ecosystem Assessment (NEA), UK (2008-11).  He is also Advisory Board member of the Gulbenkia Ocean Initiative (Lisbon). He was closely associated with the 2007 Nobel peace prize winning IPCC where he served as the Lead Author for the Fourth Assessment of the IPCC (Mitigation). He was co-coordinating lead author of the ‘Responses Working Group’ of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) (2000-2005). Pushpam also co-chaired Policy and the Technical Committee of the Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES) Programme led by the World Bank (2011-16).

 

Pushpam has a Ph.D. in ecological economics and has been with the University of Liverpool, UK and University of Delhi during 1991-2010 as Associate Professor and Professor in Environmental Economics. He also holds the Position of Honorary Research Scientist at the Earth Institute of Columbia University in New York and is an Extra Ordinary Professor, University of Pretoria. Pushpam has published in peer-reviewed journals such as Science, Bioscience, Ecological Economics, Ambio, Ecosystem Services and International Development. He has authored or edited more than eight books published by Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Edward Elgar, Rutledge, Earthscan, Sage, Island Press and McMillan.  Pushpam has been elected Member of the Board of International Society for Ecological Economics, Indian Society for Ecological Economics and European Society for Ecological Economics. He is also on the Editorial Board of various journals including Ecological Economics (Elsevier).