CFARE: Incorporating Natural Capital Into Economic Decision Making

Incorporating Natural Capital Into Economic Decision Making at 12-1:00 p.m. EST, Friday, March 29, 2024 Register HERE: Registration (gotowebinar.com), https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/7776021547581622364

On Earth Day, 2022, President Biden made protecting and restoring nature and using nature-based solutions a core tenant of U.S. national Policy by signing Executive Order 14072, Strengthening the Nation’s Forests, Communities, and Local Economies. Natural assets, including water, soil, air, and forests, play a role in sustaining and powering our economy. However, the data we rely on to measure the economy is mostly disconnected from the natural world. Natural capital includes resources we easily recognize and measure, such as minerals and energy, timber, agricultural land, fisheries, and water. Nevertheless, it also includes many of nature’s vital services, including air and water filtration, flood protection, carbon storage, pollination for crops, and habitat for fisheries and wildlife. Currently, national accounting does not consider these services to contribute to the economy.

The March C-FARE webinar brings together three experts to discuss natural capital accounting.

This webinar will be moderated by Jane Kolodinsky, C-FARE Program Chair and will feature the following panelists: Dr. Ken Bagstad is a Research Economist with the USGS’ Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center. He serves as the USGS lead for the interagency natural capital accounting initiative. Ken has led natural capital accounting efforts in the U.S. since 2016 and has also supported the implementation of natural capital accounts by international organizations and at the national level in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. J. Wesley Burnett is a research economist with interests in natural resource, conservation, agri-environmental, and energy economics. Prior to joining the USDA Economic Research Service (ERS) in 2020, he served for ten years in higher education. Burnett is the natural capital accounting technical lead within the ERS and co-coordinator for all USDA efforts. Dr. Eli Fenichel is the Knobloch Family Professor of Natural Resource Economics at Yale University. A primary focus of his research relates to valuing and accounting for natural capital. His work in this area spans the contexts of benefit-cost analysis and national accounting. He is particularly interested in how to develop scalable and replicable measurements.