Nature-Investment Interaction

Conference organized by The University of Leicester

supported by the British Academy

 June 20-21, 2010

 DEADLINE FOR PAPERS 1ST JUNE 2010

John Holdren (Science Advisor to President Obama) in his speech “Science and Technology for Sustainable Well-Being” (AAAS, 2007) states that there are three pillars of human well being, namely

1. Economic stability i.e. sustainable economic growth

2. Socio-political stability based on good governance

3. Environmental sustainability

The interactions between these three are non-trivial, and, quite often, contradictory: if the stable economic growth becomes an overriding short-term objective, then the final goals, e.g., food security, are under threat; on the other hand, the nature conservation taken to the extreme stifles economic activity, perhaps, to an unnecessary degree. Many of these interactions are now framed in contemporary questions such as food, climate and energy security.

It is clear that a proper study of sustainable use of natural resources and its implications on one side and investment/insurance on the other side requires interactions of biology, ecology, environmental sciences, social sciences; at a more technical level, assessment of investment projects and their riskiness should take into account both additional ecological costs and the adverse impact of the industry induced changes on the industry itself. Finally, for a proper study of the above interactions, it is crucially important to gather and analyze a wide range of data about changes in environment, and related changes in the profitability of industry. Some of this is beginning to be brought together in the concept of ecosystem services, but in the current form, the concept has not yet interfaced with economic or socio-political impact.

The aim of the conference is to provide a venue, where people of diverse background (environmental economists, real options people, ecologists, biologists, environmental scientists) will meet and present results and techniques for mapping and quantifying the interactions between the well-being drivers in particular to explore the two-way positive and negative interface between nature and business.

The ultimate goals are produce an appropriate framework and content for a multi-disciplinary educational and research program, which will include related disciplines without trying to organize a new interdisciplinary field. The system “nature-economics” is too complex to expect that a unique language and system of models will be adequate (surely, the complementary principle applies here). Creation of a new “interdisciplinary” field will be counterproductive because a procrustean bed will inevitably arise, and ability to pick up new ideas, concepts and technical tools will be lost. It is more advantageous to use those whenever they become available.

A Special Issue of the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management devoted to the topic of the workshop is planned.