Building Back Better: Natural Capital Accounting for a Green Recovery

On 15 December 2020 at 3:30 pm CET, the Bennett Institute for Public Policy at the University of Cambridge, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany are organising a webinar entitled "Building Back Better: Natural Capital Accounting for a Green Recovery". 

The aim of the webinar is to put the spotlight on the need to include one of humanity's greatest assets, nature, in economic statistics. As economies start their recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, there is a need to build back better by going beyond GDP towards a system that takes into account all of society's assets - natural, human, social, and institutional and that harnesses their interdependencies and helps achieve the goals of the 2030 Agenda. 

Panellists will discuss how natural capital accounting can help in the fight against climate change, biodiversity loss and air pollution. 

UN is leading the effort towards a new system of economic statistics that takes into consideration the impacts and dependencies of economies on nature. The System of Environmental Economic Accounts - Ecosystem Accounting is expected to be adopted by the United Nations Statistical Commission in 2021. 

Speakers include:

• Norbert Barthle, Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany
• Professor Diane Coyle, Bennett Professor of Public Policy and Co-Director, Bennett Institute for Public Policy, University of Cambridge
• Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta, Frank Ramsey Professor Emeritus of Economics, University of Cambridge
• Elliott Harris, United Nations Chief Economist and Assistant Secretary-General, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs
• Bert Kroese, Deputy Director General, Statistics Netherlands and Chair of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Environmental-Economic Accounting
• Stefan Schweinfest, Director, United Nations Statistics Division and
• Dr. Monica Contestabile, Editor in Chief, Nature Sustainability, as moderator of the event.