How do you put a price on nature?
On this week's episode of ClimateCast, Sky News Climate Change Correspondent Hannah Thomas-Peter and her team travel to the West African country of Gabon for a very special report.
Gabon is the second most forested country on earth, and forms part of the great Congo Basin rainforest that stretches across central Africa.
It is also one of a few nations on the planet that absorbs more carbon than it emits, taking in over one hundred million tons of carbon per year - about a quarter of the UK's annual emissions.
One of the reasons Gabon has avoided destroying its forests for economic gain so far is that it is an oil-rich nation and has traditionally relied on that revenue stream.
But that won't be the case for much longer.
The world is moving away from oil, prices are plunging and production is dwindling.
Now Gabon is asking the international community to pay it to protect the rainforest instead of the easy option of allowing commercial deforestation, the selling of valuable tropical hardwood timber and widespread agriculture.
And, we speak to Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta from the University of Cambridge about the economics of biodiversity.
The Dasgupta Review, commissioned by the Treasury in 2019 describes Nature as “our most precious asset,” says it must be at the heart of economics, and claims that humanity has collectively mismanaged its “global portfolio”.
Professor Dasgupta says his "overarching aim is the reconstruction of economics to include Nature as an ingredient", and states that humanity would need 1.6 Earths to maintain our current way of life.
And Climate Reporter Victoria Seabrook will brings us the week's latest climate news.
Gabon is the second most forested country on earth, and forms part of the great Congo Basin rainforest that stretches across central Africa.
It is also one of a few nations on the planet that absorbs more carbon than it emits, taking in over one hundred million tons of carbon per year - about a quarter of the UK's annual emissions.
One of the reasons Gabon has avoided destroying its forests for economic gain so far is that it is an oil-rich nation and has traditionally relied on that revenue stream.
But that won't be the case for much longer.
The world is moving away from oil, prices are plunging and production is dwindling.
Now Gabon is asking the international community to pay it to protect the rainforest instead of the easy option of allowing commercial deforestation, the selling of valuable tropical hardwood timber and widespread agriculture.
And, we speak to Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta from the University of Cambridge about the economics of biodiversity.
The Dasgupta Review, commissioned by the Treasury in 2019 describes Nature as “our most precious asset,” says it must be at the heart of economics, and claims that humanity has collectively mismanaged its “global portfolio”.
Professor Dasgupta says his "overarching aim is the reconstruction of economics to include Nature as an ingredient", and states that humanity would need 1.6 Earths to maintain our current way of life.
And Climate Reporter Victoria Seabrook will brings us the week's latest climate news.
