Many of us remember the dot-com bubble, including its tremendous growth throughout the 90s and the way it burst in 2000.
As we cast our eye around the global economy at the end of 2023, we’re starting to question whether we’re heading into a nature bubble. This year, there’s been so much energy and advancement in the environmental, natural capital and nature positive arenas, including:
- the passing of the Nature Repair Bill in Australia
- Canada joining the international partnership on natural capital accounting
- the TNFD recommendations, putting the System of Environmental Economic Accounting (SEEA) front and centre.
Let’s not forget the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, agreed to at COP 15 at the end of last year, which is having a lasting impact on the way that governments around the world consider biodiversity targets, including here in Australia.
At IDEEA Group, we see a nature bubble presenting both enormous risks and opportunities.
More and more companies will jump on the nature bubble bandwagon – and that will be both a good and bad thing. New offerings will energise markets. New compliance with the TNFD recommendations will make big business more accountable. Nature will finally get a look in.
But there’s a lot of potential for greenwashing. For example, this article by Peter Burnett outlines the way that the Nature Repair Bill made its way through Parliament here in Australia, and touches on the ways that greenwashing could emerge as a big risk.
So what can we do?
We can learn from past mistakes. We can remember that all that glitters is not gold. We can be thorough and transparent in our response to the nature bubble to ensure we land softly, not like the dot-com crash of 2000.
Those of you who are familiar with our work won’t be surprised that our advice is to turn to the strong foundation of the UN SEEA. This widely used global framework is the basis of our thinking at IDEEA Group. Our Directors, Mark Eigenraam and Carl Obst were instrumental in writing the SEEA and they are busy implementing it for organisations and national governments every day.
Building on our expertise in natural capital accounting, our Natural Capital Roadmap process is an ideal starting point for organisations that want to get going with nature positive but who don’t want to be left vulnerable should any bubbles pop. Taking a strategic and highly customised view of where an organisation is now, where they need to go and what they need to do, the Roadmap helps identify opportunities and plan for potential risks.
We’re here to talk anytime you’re looking for guidance about natural capital, nature markets, nature positive and TNFD.