Nature positive economies: progress, lessons and next frontiers

The Economics for Nature (E4N) partnership (2016-2022) worked to integrate natural capital into economic and business decision-making to protect and restore biodiversity. The report identifies that while the concept of natural capital helps make nature 'material' for policymakers and businesses, systemic change is hindered by a lack of a globally agreed definition of a successful economy and a divergence in capacity between the Global North and South. Key achievements include the development of the Green Economy Tracker, the '3-returns' investment framework, and the mainstreaming of natural capital into the EU Green Deal and African Development Bank programmes. The report concludes that future progress requires putting people and Indigenous Peoples at the heart of economic design, institutionalising natural capital accounting, pursuing systemic economic reform, and scaling nature-based solutions.

• The concept of natural capital serves as an effective tool to make nature 'material' for business and government decision-makers, even though the term 'capital' is not universally supported.
• There is a significant gap between OECD countries, which are integrating green measures into economic policy, and other nations facing limited fiscal space and high debt-stress, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Analysis of COVID-19 recovery plans in France, Brazil, India, and Uganda indicates that these budgets often fail to integrate natural capital and may even have negative impacts on nature.
• The E4N partnership developed several analytical and decision-support tools, including the Green Economy Tracker, which benchmarks green economy progress across 41 countries.
• Natural capital has been successfully mainstreamed into major institutional frameworks, such as the EU Green Deal and the African Development Bank's Natural Capital for African Development Finance (NC4-ADF) programme.
• The '3-returns' framework, developed by the Global Green Growth Institute and GGKP, provides a method for analyzing financial, social, and human capital alongside natural capital for sustainable landscape interventions.
• Debt-for-nature swaps are identified as an innovative financial strategy to provide climate finance and debt relief, with examples of use in the Seychelles, Bolivia, and Jamaica.
• The report argues that nature-positive economies must put people, particularly Indigenous Peoples, at the center of policy processes to ensure sustainability and social equity.
• A transition to a green economy is estimated by the World Economic Forum to potentially create 395 million jobs globally and US$10.1 trillion in annual business value by 2030.

APA

Goodrich, R. (n.d.). Nature positive economies: progress, lessons and next frontiers. Green Economy Coalition. https://www.greeneconomycoalition.org/assets/reports/GEC-Reports/E4N-Final-report-3-Nov2022.pdf

Chicago

Goodrich, Rosalind. Nature positive economies: progress, lessons and next frontiers. Green Economy Coalition, n.d. https://www.greeneconomycoalition.org/assets/reports/GEC-Reports/E4N-Final-report-3-Nov2022.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Goodrich |first1=Rosalind |title=Nature positive economies: progress, lessons and next frontiers |publisher=Green Economy Coalition |url=https://www.greeneconomycoalition.org/assets/reports/GEC-Reports/E4N-Final-report-3-Nov2022.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{goodrichndnature, author = {Goodrich, Rosalind}, title = {{Nature positive economies: progress, lessons and next frontiers}}, institution = {Green Economy Coalition}, url = {https://www.greeneconomycoalition.org/assets/reports/GEC-Reports/E4N-Final-report-3-Nov2022.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }