Natural capital

Dieter Helm

Why I looked at this book

How do we value our natural environment? Does expressing its value in monetary terms somehow devalue it? Or is such a valuation vital to prevent it's value being set at zero? And if we do decide to give it a value, how do we decide what this should be? I'm looking to this book to discuss such questions, and hopefully provide a few answers.

First impressions

The introduction confirms that it is indeed the author's plan to show a way of valuing environmental resources. He also proposes a rule that there should be no reduction in the total natural capital. Any reduction in natural resources in one place should be compensated for by an increase elsewhere. I have to say I'm not sure that I see how this would work. Maybe that is because I haven't really bought into the idea that environmental resources have a given value, but it is also that whatever the replacement is, it seems less 'natural'. In any case I'm interested in what the book has to say.