On Monday 17 October 2022, we hosted a joint online event with Natural England, to explore why nature recovery and economic recovery are not mutually exclusive goals.

With many across the country experiencing a cost of living crisis and the need to improve the economic outlook, restoring nature and tackling climate change could be viewed as distractions or barriers to progress.

But nature has the power to unlock greater prosperity and, rather than being a drain on resources, actually repays investment many times over by sustaining the public goods underpinning our way of life. We looked at how nature-based solutions can be embedded more profitably across national and local policy thinking.

As the 2021 Dasgupta review said, “our economies, livelihoods and well-being all depend on our most precious asset: Nature”. Tony Juniper opened the event by presenting nature recovery as the cost-effective answer to many urgent challenges, facilitating a healthy, sustainable economy, healthy, happy people living in attractive places, long term food security and thriving wildlife.

Our expert panel discussed these issues followed by an audience Q&A.

Panel

• Chair: Ruth Chambers, senior fellow, Green Alliance
• Tony Juniper, chair of Natural England
• Ian Bateman, professor of environmental economics, University of Exeter
• Dr Helen Barber, associate director in Blue-Green infrastructure and biodiversity planning, AECOM
• Lord Randall of Uxbridge, member of the House of Lords