Viewing and Valuing the Nature

For all of us, nature is green. That's all. Some take holidays to go to nature only to view the 'greenery'. But many of us do not view nature's value. That is the reason why we heedlessly allow environmental damage, destruction, and degradation only to make economic progress, increase GDP and provide the higher dividend to shareholders.

That will no longer be the case. Today's youth in colleges would now have to learn in the campuses a new framework called the 'System of Environmental-Economic Accounting' and will have to ensure that natural capital like forests, wetlands, and other ecosystems are recognized in economic reporting while studying economics and specially Charted Accountancy. ' It is a major step forward from the commonly used measure of gross domestic product (GDP), which dominated economic reporting for over seven decades, said UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) while commenting on the agreement promoted by UN Statistical Commission.

Historically, businesses always measured the progress in terms of the market value paid for the goods and services produced and consumed. However, nature's value was never taken into account. What member states of the UN agreed on 10th March 2021 was unprecedented. The agreed framework that recommends accounting for the value of ecosystem services is expected to mainstream the value of 'nature's capital. The mainstreaming would start almost immediately in two major upcoming UN conferences later this year, Convention of the Biodiversity ( CBD) in Kunming, China, and the Conference of the Parties for Paris Climate Agreement in Glasgow, the United Kingdom.

The accounting books from where the students presently learn need to be transformed into reality. It's not just a game-changer. It is a world-changer.