World Environment Day 2023 | This climate & nature investor’s book makes a case for regenerative, not extractive, economy

Representative image. (Photo: James Baltz via Unsplash)

Economic prosperity and development have forever been considered at odds with the conservation of the natural environment. This scepticism is not ill-informed though. Human-induced degradation the world over is evident. In such a scenario, to argue for a business-oriented case for nature is risky. But the Oxford-educated climate and nature investor Siddarth Shrikanth does precisely that in his deeply researched and lucidly written book The Case for Nature: The Other Planetary Crisis (Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Random House, 2023) by presenting nuanced arguments that help bring both nature and economics together in a conducive way.

In 10 comprehensible chapters, he outlines the problem we’re faced with today. It’s not just the obvious catchphrases — climate change, for example — but the one that we unsee in everyday life — the collapse of ecosystems. Simply put, an ecosystem is a bubble where every entity interacts and complements each other for its survival. For far too long, anthropogenic activities have harmed them immensely. Most of it, the world over, is a result of the colonial conservationist mindset but the challenge is not to deliberate whom to blame for the collective crisis but to find nature-positive solutions to it, Shrikanth seems to argue in his book.

He shares tangible results of a few practices and methods that he propounds in this book. First, he begins with a discussion on carbon capture (to reduce carbon emissions and lower down temperatures) by expanding “Earth’s innate ability to lock away carbon and moderate the global climate.” But over the years current practices to do so, he notes, haven’t proved either helpful or cost-effective. A tonne of carbon dioxide is removed at the cost of $500-1,000. What is required is “gigatonne-level scale” capturing and one can’t “wait for technological solutions to scale up”.

Carbon trading, he says, can help achieve net-zero emission goals. Carbon markets, where carbon credits are bought and sold as defined by the UNDP, “can channel valuable money into funding conservation in some of the poorest and/or most biodiverse parts of the world,” he notes. But he does underline the fact that one remains unsure how these markets are likely to evolve.

Second, by sharing the example of Fiji, the author underlines “how responsible, community-centred, ecological tourism could offer a powerful case for nature”. While critiques of ecotourism have been detailed earlier, with the help of findings from research of “endangered species such as lions, tigers, wolves and rhinos” conducted by environmentalist Ralf Buckley and his team, Shrikanth says that “ecotourism had conservation benefits that outweighed the impacts and contributed to the survival of these rare animals”.

In no way, however, is he unaware of the fact that most (eco)tourism revenue doesn’t flow to locals. And, sometimes, it has also led to devastating impacts. Nepal is a case in point. And that seems to be at the heart of any argument that Shrikanth is making in the book — that nothing must be accepted at face value and without suspicion when it comes to the environment.

Personally, the augmentation of tech and nature spoke to me. Remote-sensing methods or technology like LiDAR (light detection and ranging) for mapping of ecosystems that not only save time “to bring carbon and biodiversity-related credits to market” but are extremely precise in capturing data must be encouraged. And carbon-removal technologies like biochar and bio-oil injection must be socialised, among many actors, to drive nature-positive action. The author doesn’t just prophesise them. He shares an overwhelming case in point: eDNA (environmental DNA) — which “can be extracted from water bodies or the soil” and can “even be found floating around in the air” — capturing has helped detect 49 species of vertebrates in Copenhagen Zoo.

Then there are several financial instruments like forest resilience bonds (FRB), sustainability-linked bonds, smart contracts, etc., that he meticulously explains in layperson language that makes this book easy to read and provides a common language for environmental investors to take the business case for nature forward.

While it’s not easy to sideline the age-old critique, made by the likes of George Monbiot, that “natural capital thinking is at odds with nature’s intrinsic value”, it’s worth appreciating the impacts of nature-positive and regenerative practices the author shares in the book, which are, as he notes, rooted in the principle of “economic logic — the driving force that, for better or for worse, animates our economies and societies” and not private profiteering.