Energy, Climate, Environment

The value of nature and its “services” should not only be cherished and given greater visibility as elements of the economy, but should be assigned a monetary value in order to protect them. That is the new mantra. Although the idea is becoming more popular it is also highly contentious, argues Barbara Unmüßig.

Publication Series on Ecology 35: From climate change to ecosystem degradation – the solution to these problems could reside in an economic “valuation” of nature and its services. But can that really give nature any better protection? This publication provides a readily understandable introduction to the subject and illuminates the concepts and instruments that follow from the idea of monetarizing nature.

Publication Series on Ecology 31: A profound flaw of our civilisation, with its multiple crises, could lie in the fact that we deny the world’s deeply creative, poetic and expressive processes, all of them constantly unfolding and bringing forth a multitude of dynamic, interacting relationships. We might have forgotten what it means to be alive.

Publication Series on Ecology 13: Climate justice requires a fair and equitable sharing of emission reduction targets as well as of financial contributions from public sources, but Copenhagen has not delivered the fair, ambitious and legally binding agreement that many hoped for, and the world now seems further away from it than ever.