This publication is a takes stock of existing initiatives and applications relevant for valuing natural capital. A baseline of existing initiatives is provided in order to inform the Natural Capital Protocol project. It is also intended to be a useful resource to demystify the growing volume of natural capital relevant initiatives emerging from the private and public sectors. The following existing initiatives have been reviewed and are summarised:
- Business engagement initiatives.
- Methodologies, tools and initiatives relevant to measuring, managing and valuing natural capital in business and investor decision making.
- Initiatives relevant to using natural capital valuation in business applications eg, strategy, management (at organisation or supply chain levels), reporting and disclosure.
- Policy initiatives that define natural capital accounting classifications, metrics and indicators that can inform future target setting and new market initiatives relevant to business.
Businesses and government leaders from around the world are increasingly sounding the alarm about the need for effective management of business dependencies and impacts on ecosystems. Though various frameworks and standards have been developed and implemented to improve extra-financial accountability to stakeholders, current sustainability reporting falls short in providing the information needed for accurate investment decision-making. The recent releases of Integrated Reporting (IR) guidelines have been presented as a significant step in the right direction by professionals and academics.
This report, part of a new series by IRENA, explores how renewable energy is financed, produced, distributed and consumed, and will chart the changing relationships it is bringing about between states, corporations and individuals.
This first volume focuses upon the power sector. It tells a story – about the trends driving this change, how the technology is evolving, who is financing it, and the wider benefits it will bring. Finally, it examines what an energy system powered by renewables might look like and how policy makers can further support the transformation.
Africa is well endowed with potential for hydro and solar power, but its other endowments – shortages of capital, skills, and governance capacity – make most of the green options relatively expensive, while its abundance of hydro-carbons makes fossil fuels relatively cheap. Current power shortages make expansion of power capacity a priority. Africa's endowments, and the consequent scarcities and relative prices, are not immutable and can be changed to bring opportunity costs in Africa closer to those in the rest of the world. The international community can support by increasing Africa's supply of the scarce factors of capital, skills, and governance.
This article appeared in the Energy Economics Supplemental Issue: Green Perspectives.
The concept of “green growth” can be fruitfully connected to concepts and theories in neoclassical economics including market externalities, Ricardian and Hotelling rents, and policies that would correct externalities such as Pigovian taxes or a cap and trade system set to achieve emissions reductions consistent with cost benefit assessment. Partial equilibrium concepts have been extended to general equilibrium models, including their realization in relatively detailed empirical models that faithfully adhere to theoretical concepts of neoclassical economics. With such models we are then able to see how resource depletion and environmental degradation are affecting the economy, and how efforts to reduce the impact of these environmental and resource constraints could improve economic growth and performance.