Fourth Adrian Fernando Memorial Lecture - Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta

Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta, Frank Ramsey Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of Cambridge, Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, and Chair of the Management Board of the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at Cambridge has recently been appointed to lead a Review of the Economics of Biodiversity for the UK Government. As the 2019 Fourth Adrian Fernando Memorial Lecture keynote speaker, Sir Partha will share his ideas on the economics of biodiversity as a tool for enhancing the natural environment and its ability to deliver sustainable development.

Crisis

We are currently in the middle of a global biodiversity loss crisis. For the first time in 60 million years, the number of species worldwide is in sustained mass decline. This has been described as the ‘Sixth Mass Extinction’ in Earth’s history. This crisis is firstly a disaster for nature. Losing a species is an irreversible loss, like burning a priceless work of art. Biodiversity loss also risks triggering wider catastrophic ecosystem shifts. Ecosystems are resilient, but can be pushed beyond tipping points: consider the famous case of the difference the loss and reintroduction of wolves made to Yellowstone Park. Secondly, it is an economic disaster: as the Chancellor pointed out, the UK’s 1,500 species of pollinators deliver an estimated £680 million annual value to the UK economy – so there is an economic as well as environmental case for protecting the diversity of the natural world. Thirdly, from the view of a research centre focussed on the risk of human extinction or civilizational collapse, biodiversity loss risks human catastrophe. Humanity relies on ecosystems to provide ecosystem services, such as food, water, and energy. Sudden catastrophic ecosystem shifts could pose equally catastrophic consequences to human societies. Indeed environmental changes are associated with many historical cases of societal ‘collapses’; though the likelihood of occurrence of such events and the extent of their socioeconomic consequences remains uncertain.

Background

Prof Sir Partha Dasgupta is Frank Ramsey Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge. He taught at the London School of Economics before moving to Cambridge in 1985, becoming Chairman of the Faculty of Economics from 1997 to 2001. During 1989-2002 he was also Professor of Economics, Professor of Philosophy, and Director of the Center for Ethics in Society, Stanford University. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, Member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, Foreign Member of the American Philosophical Society, Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences, and was recipient of the Volvo Environment Prize (2002), the John Kenneth Galbraith Prize of the American Agricultural Economics Association (2006), the Zayed Environmental Prize (2011), the Blue Planet Prize (2015), and the Tyler Prize (2016). He was knighted in 2002 by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for “services to economics.”

Fernando Memorial Lecture Series

Adrian Fernando was the COO of EcoSecurities Group plc, a company conceived to tackle climate change based on the idea of using market mechanisms to properly price the environment. EcoSecurities developed more than 400 greenhouse gas emission reduction projects in 36 countries, representing approximately 10% of all projects approved by the United Nations under the Kyoto Protocol’s market based mechanisms. EcoSecurities’ largest office was in Oxford, from where Adrian led a team addressing climate change through the use of economic tools and business solutions, demonstrating that the environment is a valuable asset deserving of a market price that reflects its scarcity and its long term value. The goal of this lecture series is to foster discussion of the role of business and economics in solving the world’s environmental challenges.