Accounting for the increasing benefits from scarce ecosystems

• 成果类型: Editorial Material
• 署名作者: Drupp, M. A.; Haensel, M. C.; Fenichel, E. P.; Freeman, M.; Gollier, C.; Groom, B.; Heal, G. M.; Howard, P. H.; Millner, A.; Moore, F. C.; Nesje, F.; Quaas, M. F.; Smulders, S.; Sterner, T.; Traeger, C.; Venmans, F.
• 署名单位: University of Hamburg; Leipzig University; Potsdam Institut fur Klimafolgenforschung; Yale University; University of York - UK; Universite de Toulouse; Universite Toulouse 1 Capitole; Toulouse School of Economics; University of Exeter; University of London; London School Economics & Political Science; Columbia University; New York University; University of California System; University of California Davis; University of Copenhagen; German Research Foundation (DFG); German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv); Tilburg University; University of Gothenburg; University of Oslo
• 刊物名称: SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0036-11223
• DOI: 10.1126/science.adk2086
• 发表日期: 2024-03-08
• 页码: 1062-1064
• 关键词: willingness-to-pay; relative prices

摘要

Governments are catching up with economic theory and practice by increasingly integrating ecosystem service values into national planning processes, including benefitcost analyses of public policies. Such analyses require information not only about today's benefits from ecosystem services but also on how benefits change over time. We address a key limitation of existing policy guidance, which assumes that benefits from ecosystem services remain unchanged. We provide a practical rule that is grounded in economic theory and evidence-based as a guideline for how benefits change over time: They rise as societies get richer and even more so when ecosystem services are declining. Our proposal will correct a substantial downward bias in currently used estimates of future ecosystem service values. This will help governments to reflect the importance of ecosystems more accurately in benefit-cost analyses and policy decisions they inform.