The financial world is undergoing a seismic shift, moving nature from a disregarded externality to a systemic financial risk. PRICING NATURE explores the standards, markets, and mandates driving this transformation, revealing how trillions of dollars are being mobilized to measure, value, and finance the global ecosystem.

We analyze the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting—Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA-EA), the definitive international statistical standard for measuring the environment-economy nexus. The SEEA-EA aims to quantify nature’s contributions to human well-being, which have historically remained external to traditional economic accounting. We delve into the complexities of generating Monetary Ecosystem Asset Accounts, which typically calculate asset value as the net present value (NPV) of the expected future stream of ecosystem service flows. Crucially, the SEEA-EA framework must maintain structural compatibility with the System of National Accounts (SNA), focusing solely on exchange values and explicitly excluding the assessment of non-use values (such as intrinsic or existence value) from asset valuation.

The podcast investigates the volatile integrity crisis within voluntary climate mechanisms, particularly Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+). We dissect the scientific consensus that revealed estimates of emissions reductions in project-based Voluntary Carbon Markets (VCM) were often exaggerated, with analyses suggesting that the underlying threat of deforestation was sometimes overstated by roughly 400 percent. Learn how the Paris Agreement's Article 6 introduces a rigorous accounting requirement—the Corresponding Adjustments (ACs)—to prevent the critical issue of double counting. This regulation segments the market, elevating authorized and adjusted RE de OFMI credits to a premium product for international compensation claims, distinguishing them from cheaper, unauthorized credits.

Finally, we cover the mandatory disclosure regimes that compel organizations to translate ecological loss into balance sheet risks, specifically the EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). The standard ESRS E4 (Biodiversity and Ecosystems) requires companies to quantify the anticipated financial effects (DR E4-6) of material biodiversity risks and dependencies on their financial performance and cash flows. This aligns with the methodology established by the TNFD LEAP approach and the new ISO 17298 standard on biodiversity in strategy and operations. The objective is massive financial mobilization: the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) mandates the mobilization of at least USD 1.3 trillion annually by 2035 for climate action in developing countries, supported by innovative financial mechanisms like the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF), which has the potential to mobilize up to USD 125 billion to remunerate countries for keeping tropical forests standing.

Join us as we quantify the critical role of the natural world in securing financial stability, corporate resilience, and the global economy.