1. Molly Scott Cato Professor of Strategy and Sustainability Roehampton Business School There is no wealth but life Putting Natural Capital Ahead of Financial Profit

2. My Backyard

3. Why Markets Won’t Save Habitats Problems with theory Substitution of capitals Discounting and cost-benefit analysis Problems in practice The Clean Development Mechanism The EU Emissions Trading System And what types of policies might

4. Substitution and the Five Capitals

5. Robert Solow—theorist of growth what little evidence there is suggests that there is quite a lot of substitutability between exhaustible resources and renewable or reproducible resources’ ‘If it is very easy to substitute other factors for natural resources, then there is, in principle ‘no problem’. The world can, in effect, get along without natural resources. Exhaustion is an event not a catastrophe’...

6. The value of nature is different... In different countries: ‘'I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that.'

7. And in different times Discounting to turn all values into Net Present Values

8. Recipe to create a ‘missing’ market Creating a product: supply of resources, e.g. drugs from the Amazon assimilation of wastes, e.g. forests direct source of ‘utility’ in terms of enjoying the view or feeling spiritually uplifted, e.g. an unspoilt view A preference for something and a willingness to pay to secure it

9. ‘Ecosystem services’ and the Clean Development Mechanism First we value ecosystems, then people sell ecosystems. But who decides who owns them? What does ownership mean? What is the product? Who controls the ‘shadow market’? Lohman found that local ‘entrepreneurs’ have profited whereas self-provisioning communities have lost out

10. Selling the global commons

11. Problems If markets protect environments better than people do, why are intact ecosystems are in less developed areas? Poorly developed legal systems appear to have preserved ecosystems Subsistence farmers in the world’s poorer nations are are displace and lose livelihoods as their land is traded to provide carbon sinks

12. ‘the origins of the cataclysm lay in the utopian endeavor of economic liberalism to set up a self-regulating market system’ ‘previously to our time no economy has ever existed that, even in principle, was controlled by markets’ Challenging our preconceptions

13. Welfare and community Side by side with family housekeeping, there have been three principles of production and distribution:  Reciprocity  Redistribution  Market Prior to the market revolution, humanity’s economic relations were subordinate to the social. Now economic relations are now generally superior to social ones.

14. Four aspects of the solution Getting the politics right—and at the right level Reducing the role of trade and replacing it with local provisioning The Bioregional Economy Relearning our place in the natural world

15. Market or Politics?  Binding global treaties launched by EU and imposed on imports e.g. Cites  EU Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) legislation to be compulsory rather than voluntary  Need to demonstrate compliance before import is permitted  Lengthy supply chains undermine accountability. Need local economies provisioning locally

17. GAST: a proposal from Colin Hines for ‘progressive protectionism’ Current ruleEffectAmended GAST rule Most- Favoured Nation Choice between producers is prohibited Favoured treatment to states that respect human and animal rights National Treatment Imported and locally produced goods to be treated equally Favourable treatment to domestic products that further decent wages and environmental standards General Exceptions to WTO Rules Provides scope for enforcement measures on environmental or health and safety grounds, but narrowly interpreted Scope of exemptions should be extended and reinforced

18. New TEEB levies Payment for ecosystem services (PES) to make sure that the ecosystem benefits from those that exploiting it. ‘Conservation banking‘ to mitigate the destruction of unique habits as a result of economic development by offsetting the damage with benefits elsewhere in the region. Suffers the problems of costing, relative value and generally accepting that this is problem best solved by the market rather than people

19. Why ownership matters Stewardship not property rights Commons not markets e.g. National Trust Participatory economic planning e.g. EU fisheries policy Who will gain the profit? Cornish minerals mining: which system of ownership would best protect the environment?

20. Back to the future McKinsey’s Resource Revolution as a global enclosure project Corporate technical and managerial expertise will solve the ‘challenge’ of ‘inefficiency’ posed by traditional economies in the areas of the world where resources are still plentiful. Role of government is limited to establishing a price for carbon and ensuring property rights are respected Justification for land grabbing

21. Living closer to the land ensures our identification with other species The importance of re-embedding The Importance of Relationship

22. What is a bioregion? ‘a unique region definable by natural (rather than political) boundaries’ A bioregion is literally and etymologically a ‘life- place’—with a geographic, climatic, hydrological and ecological character capable of supporting unique human and non-human living communities. Bioregions can be variously defined by the geography of watersheds, similar plant and animal ecosystems, and related identifiable landforms and by the unique human cultures that grow from natural limits and potentials of the region

23. An economic bioregion A bioregional economy would be embedded within its bioregion and would acknowledge ecological limits. Bioregions as natural social units determined by ecology rather than economics Can be largely self-sufficient in terms of basic resources such as water, food, products and services. Enshrine the principle of trade subsidiarity

24. Key characteristics of the bioregional economy— Locality Accountability through reconnection Community and conviviality

25. Conviviality instead of productivity I believe that, in any society, as conviviality is reduced below a certain level, no amount of industrial productivity can effectively satisfy the needs it creates among society's members. (Illich, 1974).

26. ‘Indigenous people believe that if they cause harm to nature, then they will themselves come to harm, whether it is speaking without respect of certain animals, or whether it is overfishing a lake or hunting out a certain type of animal. This is something that we in the industrialized world have lost, and perhaps need to remember.’

27. Find out more gaianeconomics.blogspot.com Green House thinktank www.greeneconomist.org Green Economics: An Introduction to Theory, Policy and Practice (Earthscan, 2009) The Bioregional Economy: Land, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness (Earthcan, 2012)