Nature positive economies: progress, lessons and next frontiers

The Economics for Nature (E4N) partnership developed tools, networks, and best practices to embed the value of natural capital into government, business, and financial decision-making. Key achievements include 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 document identifies a divergence between OECD countries and debt-stressed nations in adopting these approaches and outlines four 'frontiers' for future progress: centering people and Indigenous knowledge, standardizing valuation frameworks, implementing systemic economic reform, and scaling nature-based solutions.

• The E4N partnership developed several analytical and decision-support tools to quantify and track nature's value, including the Green Economy Tracker, which benchmarks the progress of 41 countries toward a green economy, and a 'natural capital gap' analysis conducted across 20 countries to estimate the costs and capital increases needed to meet selected Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
• Natural capital is being integrated into major institutional frameworks, notably appearing as a "key element" in the EU Green Deal and within the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. Additionally, the OECD has included natural capital in its country-level environmental performance reviews.
• The partnership facilitated the creation of new investment and development frameworks, such as the Global Green Growth Institute's '3-returns' framework covering financial, social, and human capital, and the African Development Bank's Natural Capital for African Development Finance (NC4-ADF) programme launched in September 2021.
• Experience from the E4N programme suggests that while the concept of 'natural capital' can be contentious, it is an effective mechanism for mainstreaming nature's value into financial and business decision-making. However, there is a significant gap in adoption between wealthier OECD countries and countries with limited fiscal space and high debt-stress.
• The document identifies four critical 'frontiers' for future action: placing people and Indigenous Peoples' knowledge at the center of policy, mainstreaming common valuation standards (such as the UN System of Environmental Economic Accounting), advocating for systemic economic reform of incentives and regulations, and implementing nature-based solutions (NbS) to build climate resilience.

APA

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

Chicago

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

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Green Economy Coalition |title=Nature positive economies: progress, lessons and next frontiers |url=https://www.greeneconomycoalition.org/assets/reports/GEC-Reports/E4N-Final-report-3-Nov2022-EXEC-SUMMARY.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{greeneconomycoalitionndnature, author = {{Green Economy Coalition}}, 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-EXEC-SUMMARY.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }