為世界上的自然資源衡量所謂的經濟價值,並不是件容易的事。在名古屋的生物多樣性公約締約國會議上,聯合國環境規劃署綠色經濟倡議的負責人蘇克德夫(Pavan Sukhdev),提出了一份名為《重視自然經濟》(Mainstreaming the Economics of Nature)的報告,格外引人注目。
蘇克德夫身為德國首席銀行家,曾於聯合國環境規劃署提出綠色經濟倡議(Green Economy Initiative),倡導綠色經濟方案。他所提出的報告,是源自一系列有關生態經濟與生物多樣性研究的「生態系暨生物多樣性經濟倡議計畫」(TEEB),這是TEEB計畫的第4份、也是最後一份報告。
「從TEEB研究中已證實,全球自然環境所蘊含的經濟價值不僅高達數兆美元,同時也見證了政策轉變、聰明的市場機制更能為這個日益充滿挑戰的世界,注入一股新思維」,蘇克德夫在名古屋如此說道。
《重視自然經濟》報告要傳達的訊息是:企業行為──特別是像採礦業,若錯估自然資本的價值,對企業、對社會而言,都是一大風險。
研究中指出,根據英國環保顧問公司TruCost估計,全球3000家頂尖企業所造就的負面衝擊,每年約在2.2兆美元之譜。
UNEP執行長史坦納指出,「我們的財經或貿易首長、經濟規劃者只看中製造業、礦業、零售、營建及能源等傳統產業,TEEB研究則引領世人體認到,自然界所提供的資產與利益對全民而言均是共享的。然而在地球上人口越來越多的情況下,資源將愈趨有限。特別是在2050年人口可望突破90億人的今日,將面臨資源不足的危機。」
蘇克德夫強調,TEEB研究的參與者包括來自世界各國的上百位專家學者,並非僅僅是單純的對地球做所謂的成本效益分析。
TEEB的研究體認到生物多樣性擁有各類不同的價值型式,但並非每種類型都是有辦法量化為數值;能為生物多樣性估價的經濟手段非常多,市場只是其中一小部分。報告中指出,例如「淨值正面效益」(Net Positive Impact)、溼地補償、生物銀行等手段,都能確保開發者對環境負起責任。
《重視自然經濟》報告聚焦於三大區域。分別為自然生態系統(森林),人類居住環境(都市),以及企業部門(礦區), 並試圖說明經濟概念能夠幫助評估不同層次間的自然價值。
報告顯示,支付金額的方式能促使自然資源有更好的規劃。例如在墨西哥,一項對生態環境支付金額的方案所提供的利益已使用在造林、集水,並且減少320萬公噸溫室效應氣體,二氧化碳排放。
如同一般消費者與執政者在市場上往往偏好選擇綠色環保型產品,商業方面亦能得到相當的優勢。TEEB指出,至西元2020年前,農業產品市場規模預計可達2千1百億美元,其中支付水生域態系60億美元,自發性生物多樣性補償每年約1億美元。
「值得慶幸的是,當前許多社區與都市已經開始重視自然資源價值的潛力」,蘇克德夫表示。
蘇克德夫稱,迄今非洲與拉丁美洲地區已有27個國家與亞洲的一個國家向聯合國環境規劃署團隊尋求協助。
巴西環境部門代表官員戴斯曾受邀至TEEB學習參訪,並認為其具有充分的規劃與能力引導經濟。「世界上生物多樣性熱點之一的巴西,政府與民間得到TEEB的大力讚揚,由此能體認到大自然的價值」,戴斯表示,在國內我們商討執行TEEB研究,並且巴西民間也正計畫決策與實踐。
印度環境及森林部部長羅曼表示,自己的國家目前正計畫在2015年提案實施一項仿效TEEB模式的全國性的經濟性評估。印度總理曼莫漢·辛格也在首都新德里發表聲明相呼應:「我們必須發展能夠從廢棄物中提取有用資源的技術,藉此遏止我們所生存環境的持續衰退破壞,同時亦保存環境中豐富的生物多樣性與有限的自然資產。」曼莫漢·辛格冀望能夠實際參與非官方的活動的方式,以建立起絕佳的合作關係TEEB研究計畫的由來,起初是由德國與歐盟執委會於2007年八大工業國暨新興工業五國在德國召開環境部長高峰會後始創立。
歐盟執委會環境執委波托奇尼克說道:「評估自然的同時,憑藉阻止生物多樣性消逝為目的的種種活動,我們也從行動中認知到它的經濟價值。」
波托奇尼克表示:「我們將這條途徑上將TEEB發展的政策付諸行動,我們也樂意支持世界各國為維護生物多樣性,以及生態系統資源投資貢獻中所付出的種種行動。」
德國環境部門代表布萊爾提到,愈來愈多的人們經由與自身經濟狀況的利害關係層面,從中了解到保護生物多樣性能夠促進商業利潤與機會,並且生物多樣性亦具備穩定的經濟價值。
布萊爾指出,就TEEB的研究發現而言,下一步即必須付諸行動。
日本環境省事務次官南川秀樹指出,根據TEEB計畫的研究內容,能夠實際應用於降低貧窮率與生物多樣性保育,並作為革命性的典範。
以目前情況,日本早已著手於嘗試於建立仿效TEEB研究手法。主辦生物多樣性公約締約國會議名古屋的各級政府官員,已藉由實施新的交易發展系統制度,期望能減低當前高層建築所帶來的衝擊並維護傳統農業。
「一種更有效率的方法,測量商業對生物多樣性正負面影響的方式,是激發商業投資與經營的要素。精明的職場領袖明白整合生物多樣性與生態系服務能夠增加收益,益增進名聲與效率。」身為TEEB報告統籌與世界自然保育聯盟首席經濟學家的畢夏普(Joshua Bishop)說道。
本次報告過後,TEEB行動並將不會隨之結束。蘇克達夫促使TEEB與MOFILM製作公司合作,選擇了25個關聯影片放置在線上,請參閱網站http://www.teebweb.org/。
TEEB研究統合參閱上千個相關研究,評估方法、政策方案與世界上各類行動範例。內容涉及多樣學門,研究成果歸納10點建議,供人民與決策者作為生物多樣性議題的參考。
1.對自然衝擊的資訊透明化、可歸責,這是生物多樣性評估報告最重要的內容。
2.國民所得帳要加以改善,必須能呈現自然資本的變化、以及生態系服務的流向。
3.替森林資源與生態系統服務規劃一致的具體帳目,是刻不容緩。
4. 企業會計帳應揭露外部成本,如對環境所造成的傷害。
5. 「生物多樣性零淨損失」、「淨值正面效益」(Net Positive Impact)等作法,可考慮成為企業的常態性業務。
6. 「污染者付費」與「支付全額成本」(full-cost-recovery)原則,是讓企業調整激勵結構和財務革新的強力工具。某些情況下,「受益人付費」原則也足以促成正面誘因。
7. 政府應盡可能完整揭露所有的補貼,以避免出現不利的誘因。
8. 世界各地應設立並評估更多綜合的、有效且公平管理的保護區;生態系評估也會有所幫助。
9. REDD(減少毀林及森林退化造成的溫室氣體排放)政策所規劃之森林保護系統應儘早實施。
10. 任何開發或影響環境的政策,都必須體認到,窮者對生態系服務的依賴性。
生物多樣性公約執行秘書朱格拉夫,強調TEEB整合發現對邁入公元2011-2020階段,發展「生物多樣性行動計劃」與「行動計劃」的重要性。
此次在名古屋之會議,預計擬定新的計策與制定長期執行保育的工作。該工作將致力於減低此後至公元2020年這段期間生物多樣性的喪失,以期未來在公元2050年我們仍能保有一個富有多樣生命面貌的世界。
※《重視自然經濟》報告全文下載http://www.teebweb.org/
Assigning economic value to the benefits the world gets for free from nature is not easy, so today's release of the report, "Mainstreaming the Economics of Nature," by a banker who works with the UN Environment Programme has attracted a lot of attention at the Convention on Biodiversity's Conference of Parties meeting in Nagoya.
The banker, Pavan Sukhdev, a Deutsche Bank capital markets expert, heads UNEP's Green Economy Initiative.
Today he released the fourth and last in a series of reports from a three-year-long study on The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity, which everyone calls TEEB.
"TEEB has documented not only the multi-trillion dollar importance to the global economy of the natural world, but the kinds of policy shifts and smart market mechanisms that can embed fresh thinking in a world beset by a rising raft of multiple challenges," said Sukhdev today in Nagoya.
"Mainstreaming the Economics of Nature," carries the message that failure of business to account for the value of natural capital, particularly in sectors such as mining, can pose major business and social risks.
For the report, the UK-based consultancy TruCost estimated that the negative impacts of the world's top 3,000 listed companies totals around US$2.2 trillion annually.
"In the past only traditional sectors such as manufacturing, mining, retailing, construction and energy generation were uppermost in the minds of economic planners and ministers of finance, development and trade," said UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.
" TEEB has brought to the world's attention that nature's goods and services are equal, if not far more central, to the wealth of nations including the poor," said Steiner, "a fact that will be increasingly the case on a planet of finite resources with a population set to rise to nine billion people by 2050."
Sukhdev emphasized that TEEB study, which has involved hundreds of experts from around the world, is not a cost-benefit analysis of the Earth.
TEEB recognizes that biodiversity has many different types of values, not all of which can be given a price tag, he said, adding that market solutions represent but a small fraction of the economic solutions available to value biodiversity.
Approaches such as Net Positive Impact, wetland mitigation and bio-banking can help ensure that developers take responsibility for their environmental footprints, the report shows.
"Mainstreaming the Economics of Nature" focuses on three areas - a natural ecosystem (forests), a human settlement (cities), and a business sector (mining) - to illustrate how the economic concepts and tools described in TEEB can help society bring Pricing the Value of Nature into decision making at all levels.
The report shows how payments for ecosystem services can result in better stewardship of natural capital. In Mexico, for example, a system of payments for ecosystem services has halved the annual rate of deforestation, protected water catchments and cloud forests, and avoided emissions of 3.2 million tonnes of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.
As consumers and governments opt for greener purchasing choices, the business sector stands to make considerable gains. The TEEB report estimates that by 2020 the annual market size for certified agricultural products is expected to be US$210 billion; payments for water related ecosystem services US$6 billion; and voluntary biodiversity offsets in the region of US$100 million a year.
"The good news is that many communities and countries are already seeing the potential of incorporating Pricing the Value of Nature into decision-making," said Sukhdev.
Sukhdev said that to date, 27 governments from Africa and Latin America, and one from Asia, had sought help from the UNEP team.
Braulio Dias, Secretary for Biodiversity and Forests, Ministry for Environment, Brazil, welcomed the TEEB study, saying it offers sound guidance and a powerful message to reset the economic compass.
"As one of the world's biodiversity hotspots, Brazil's government and business sectors are taking the TEEB recommendations very seriously and can see that the era of the invisibility of Pricing the Value of Nature must end," said Dias.
"At a national level we are in discussion to implement a TEEB study of our natural capital," he said, "and the Brazilian business sector is also in planning to move towards this practical and sustainable approach to decision-making."
Jairam Ramesh, India's Minister for Environment and Forests, said his country is planning a TEEB-style national economic assessment by 2015.
In New Delhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said, "We have to be able to develop technologies that create wealth from waste, thereby tackling depletion and degradation of our environment while conserving our rich biodiversity and finite resources." Prime Minister Singh called for greater participation of the private sector to create high impact collaborations.
The TEEB study was spearheaded by Germany and the European Commission in response to a proposal in 2007 by the G8+5 Environment Ministers.
European Commissioner for the Environment Janez Potocnik said, "While of course valuing nature for itself, we also recognize its economic value in the battle to stop biodiversity loss."
"We will look at ways to implement in our policies the analyses developed by TEEB," Potocnik said. "We are also willing to support initiatives by other countries to demonstrate the benefits and costs of investing in managing biodiversity and ecosystem services."
Nicola Breier, with Germany's Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, said stakeholders increasingly understand that conserving biodiversity can yield business and saving opportunities, while biodiversity can also have a hard economic value.
Breier said the second phase of TEEB requires implementing the reports' findings.
Hideki Minamikawa, Japan's vice-minister of environment, said TEEB could be a revolutionary measure to trigger a new means to facilitate poverty reduction and biodiversity conservation.
Japan is already trying some TEEB-style experiments. City officials in Nagoya, host to the biodiversity converence, have implemented a new system of tradeable development rights whereby developers wishing to exceed existing limits on high-rise buildings can offset their impacts by buying and conserving areas of Japan's traditional agricultural landscape.
"Better accounting of business impacts on biodiversity - both positive and negative - is essential to spur change in business investment and operations," said Joshua Bishop, the TEEB for Business report coordinator and chief economist of the world's largest nongovernmental organization, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
"Smart business leaders realize that integrating biodiversity and ecosystem services in their value chains can generate substantial cost savings and new revenues, as well as improved business reputation and license to operate," said Bishop.
TEEB activities will not end with this concluding report. Today, Sukhdev introduced a partnership between TEEB and the MOFILM global community of filmmakers, from which 25 TEEB-related films have been selected and will be made available online at http://www.teebweb.org/.
The TEEB study has synthesized thousands of studies, examined valuation methods, policy instruments and examples of action from around the world. Referring to numerous case studies, the report concludes with 10 recommendations to help citizens and policymakers factor biodiversity into everyday decisions.
- Public disclosure of, and accountability for, impacts on nature should be essential outcomes of biodiversity assessment.
- National accounts should be improved to include the value of changes in natural capital stocks and ecosystem service flows.
- An urgent priority is to draw up consistent physical accounts for forest stocks and ecosystem services.
- Business accounts should disclose externalities such as environmental damage.
- No Net Loss of biodiversity' or 'Net Positive Impact' should be considered as normal business practice.
- The principles of 'polluter pays' and 'full-cost-recovery' are powerful guidelines for the realignment of incentive structures and fiscal reform. In some contexts, the principle of 'beneficiary pays' can be invoked to support new positive incentives.
- Governments should aim for full disclosure of subsidies to avoid perverse incentives.
- The establishment of more comprehensive, effective and equitably managed protected areas around the globe should be pursued and ecosystem valuation can help.
The REDD plus forestry conservation system should be implemented as soon as possible. - The dependence of the world's poor on ecosystem services needs wider recognition in development interventions and in policies affecting the environment.
Ahmed Djoghlaf, executive secretary of the Convention on Biodiversity, stressed the importance of integrating findings from TEEB into the 2011-2020 strategic plan for the Convention and the next generation of National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans.
The Nagoya meeting is expected to adopt a new strategic plan and a multi-year program of work that will reduce the loss of biodiversity by 2020 and by 2050 produce a world where the diversity of Earth's living creatures is cherished and protected.
全文及圖片詳見:ENS報導