Nature should be at the heart of the economy, say researchers

Nature should be at the heart of the economy, according to a new 10-point Action Plan written by a group of multidisciplinary researchers.

The plan brings together the latest scientific research in order to offer solutions to the current global challenges.

The plan emphasises the importance of a circular economy to help manage transport, land, food, health and industrial systems.

The researchers set out 10 points which are needed to create a circular economy based on a synergistic relationship between economy and ecology:

1. Focus on sustainable wellbeing
2.  Invest in nature and biodiversity
3.  Generate an equitable distribution of prosperity
4.  Rethink land, food and health systems holistically
5.  Transform industrial sectors
6.  Reimagine cities through ecological lenses
7.  Create an enabling regulatory framework
8.  Deliver mission-oriented innovation to the investment and political agenda
9.  Enable access to finance and enhance risk-taking capacity
10.  Intensify and broaden research and education.

The plan outlines that sustainability should be achieved whilst ensuring equal prosperity.

Professor Pickett, from the University of York’s Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity, said: ‘This report builds upon our work to model and measure sustainable wellbeing and place it as a central aim of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

‘The need for a socially just transition to inclusive and sustainable development and prosperity for all has been heightened by the coronavirus pandemic and it is vital that researchers work together to come up with proposals for fundamental change.’

Marc Palahí, director of the European Forest Institute (EFI), who led the study, added: ‘The Action Plan forms the framework for the Circular Bioeconomy Alliance established by His Royal Highness to accelerate the transition towards a Circular Bioeconomy. I am proud that EFI will coordinate such a transformative initiative.’

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