Sustainable Development and Biodiversity: Hype or Hope?

The notion of sustainable development implies, by construction, a deep engagement with Nature: what we take from it, how we transform it and return to it, and what we will leave of it to the next generations. An essential component of Nature is biodiversity, which increases Nature’s productivity and resilience to shocks, and thereby reduces risks to the ecosystem services on which we rely for our sustainable development. Biodiversity is being lost worldwide at unprecedented rates, jeopardizing the contribution that natural capital can give to economic growth and livelihoods. From an economic standpoint, this is a pivotal issue which requires a deep reflection on how to address biodiversity for achieving sustainable development. Can economies grow indefinitely by accumulating produced and human capital at the expense of biodiversity, or there are boundaries posed by Nature? The answer to this critical question depends to a great extent upon the substitutability assumed between different categories of capital, as well as on how humans—and thus economies—are conceived in relation with Nature. Framing biodiversity within this theoretical framework and in relation with natural capital as an enabling asset means acknowledging the contribution of biodiversity to sustainable development as well as its role in influencing the value of assets in the core accounts. Overall, a path towards a more sustainable future requires a forward-looking approach, which involves anticipating the nature and consequences of major socioeconomic changes, both before and as they unfold, and adopting a proactive planning guided by such analysis. To this end, a throughout analysis of four key megatrends (demographic changes, urbanization, climate change, and technological change) is proposed in the final section of this work for the benefit of policymaking.