The Biden administration announced an initiative Thursday to track the “economic role and value” of nature in the U.S., claiming that current economic indicators do not accurately track the impact of the “natural world” on the U.S. economy.
The “National Strategy to Develop Statistics for Environmental-Economic Decisions” was announced as a joint initiative between the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Office of Management and Budget and the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC), and represented the work of “27 Federal departments, agencies and offices” to “account for natural assets.” The initiative notes that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) — a measure of the overall economic output of the U.S. — and other economic statistics were developed when “nature’s ability to provide seemed limitless,” and that an accurate accounting of natural resources is necessary. (RELATED: US Shale Boss Says Industry’s Golden Age Is ‘Over’)
“The fact that nature provides people with services now and opportunities in the future is why economists refer to nature as a form of capital,” The White House report reads. “This natural capital supports economic prosperity in similar ways to the financial capital that is traded on Wall Street or the buildings and machines that make up the physical capital on Main Street.”
Nature provides people with services now and opportunities for the future. That’s why we are putting it on the national balance sheet.
Today, @WHOSTP, @OMBPress, and @CommerceGov released a Strategy for Natural Capital Accounting. https://t.co/8AbTYuteQ8
— White House Office of Science & Technology Policy (@WHOSTP) January 19, 2023
Tracking natural capital will allow economists to have “early-warning mechanisms” for the “physical and transition risk from climate change,” according to the initiative. Since natural disasters like forest fires and storms can have severe economic consequences, an accurate understanding of natural capital would make assessing the risks of climate change easier.
The U.S. will be joining ongoing efforts by various countries, including Canada, China and the U.K. to assess natural capital, and have the opportunity to “reestablish itself as a leader,” in the space, according to the initiative. The report also warns that countries like China have found they can use this “environmental accounting” to accomplish soft power objectives, and that U.S. primacy on the topic would allow for standardization that reduced risks of “geopolitical incoherence.”
The initiative will be phased over a 15-year period, to develop a “headline summary statistic,” akin to GDP, known as “Change in Natural Asset Wealth.” Pilot programs will be initiated in 2023, with the program becoming fully operational in 2036.
The White House and Department of Commerce did not immediately respond to a Daily Caller News Foundation request for comment.
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