Require firms to report their impact on nature, Government urged

Businesses should be required to report their impact on nature, the Government has been urged.

Green Alliance is calling on ministers to set a timeline for mandatory nature reporting by companies, saying it could motivate business leaders to invest in its restoration.

Disclosing this information could hold businesses to account by forcing them to share their impact on nature publicly, the extent of their dependence on it and any related risks they face, the think tank said.

In a new report released on Tuesday, the organisation said the measure could also help to establish a new economic indicator to supersede gross domestic product (GDP), which only focuses on value to the economy.

It cited New Zealand and Canada, which have revised their indicators of economic success to reflect the value of natural assets as well.

The Treasury-commission landmark 2021 review led by economist Sir Partha Dasgupta predicts that the impact of nature degradation worldwide will suppress GDP by as much as 6% in the 2030s.

It argues that government and businesses are failing to value nature and highlights the need for more action to scale up investment in nature restoration.

The UK, which is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, set a goal in 2023 to channel £1 billion in private finance into nature every year by 2030.

But Green Alliance said the country’s current economic system allows firms to use and deplete nature with no incentive for them to preserve natural assets for the future.

This threatens the Government’s growth mission, the report said, citing the Dasgupta Review’s argument that the economy is underpinned by a healthy natural environment.

Heather Plumpton, head of research at Green Alliance and an author of the new report, said: “The UK’s severe and continuing nature decline is evidence our economic system is dysfunctional.

“We perversely destroy natural assets we depend on heavily for future growth and national wellbeing.

“Businesses rely on nature to make profits but don’t necessarily value it properly, as incentives to look after it aren’t embedded in the system.

“We’ve set out immediate and longer-term steps ministers should take to recognise nature’s proper value, so we can begin to turn the tide on nature loss here in the UK.”

PA has contacted the Department for Business and Trade for comment.