Conversations with Asia’s leading movers, shakers, thinkers, and provocateurs |
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In conversation with
Fraser Thompson
The New Nature Economy
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Can nature and business co-exist? Apparently so, according to a new report, The Future of Nature and Business. The World Economic Forum (WEF) in collaboration with AlphaBeta, a Singapore-based consultancy, have concluded that nature-friendly ventures are in a position to generate $10.1 trillion in recurring annual revenues and up to 395 million jobs by 2030. To pull it off, they say, we need new levels of corporate and government coordination to target the right opportunities and incentivize the right players.
In this latest episode of Inside Asia, I speak with Fraser Thompson, Founder and Managing Director of AlphaBeta. We delve into the premise of the report and he explains how his team arrived at a set of prodigious figures, forecasting future wealth. With so much at stake, and so little time, it begs the question: Is investing in the new nature economy an opportunity or an imperative?
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The Cost of Doing Nothing
Like all things, it depends how you look at it. If the WEF’s first report, Nature Risk Rising, was presented as a cautionary tale, forecasting an estimated $44 trillion in lost economic value (that’s half of global GDP) if we do nothing, this latest report attempts to reassure us. Not all is lost, it suggests, assuming the private sector steps up.
While climate change has received the lion’s share of attention in recent years, Fraser points to an even bigger underlying problem – the rapid decline of biodiversity. This raises the question: How big of a problem is it? That then leads to a second question: Is there time to do anything about it? It’s like saying the ship is sinking, but let’s hang out in the boardroom a little longer and draw up a few innovative ideas. I don’t mean to be flippant, but the dye has been cast and still we ponder the options. It leads us back to the question of the new nature economy as opportunity or imperative. Is there any doubt that it’s an imperative? What will it take to mobilize the powers that be?
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Carrot or the Stick?
Fear hasn’t worked. Do you recall the ad campaign a few years back courtesy of Conservation International? A string of 2-minute spots narrated by the likes of Harrison Ford and Julia Roberts. Daunting reminders that – and I quote - “Nature doesn’t need people. People need Nature.” We all stared in wonder at the raw power of the message, but did it change anything? Hard to say.
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Pleading doesn’t appear to work either. How many of you watched or listened to environmental activist Greta Thunberg urge corporate leaders at Davos this past January to take heed: “Our house is still on fire, and you’re fueling the flames,” she told the gathering.
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Then came Covid-19. How quickly a universal agenda can be upended. Hijacked by a pandemic that stemmed from – wouldn’t you know – the mishandling of rare animals in a Wuhan wet market. You have to ask yourself, what’s it going to take? The stick clearly hasn’t worked. Apparently we can all take a beating. Introducing: the carrot. Wave $10 trillion of potential new business opportunities in front of the very organizations that brought you environmental disaster, and perhaps – like Pavlov’s dog – you’ll get the anticipated salivary reaction. Were it so easy.
Seed Capital
As Fraser points out, to realize even a fraction of these new commercial opportunities, an estimated $2.7 trillion in annualized capital over ten years will be required. Coordination between public and private interests and across industrial sectors is imperative, he says. But the real saving grace appears to be technology – Fourth Industrial Revolution grade technology that it, including AI, Internet-of-Things, robotics and advanced data management. It’s all possible, but, of course, someone’s going to have to pay.
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So, we are left with the ultimate question: In a time when geo-political de-coupling and nationalistic self-reliance is all the rage, how do we globally align our social, environmental and commercial interests to save the world and save ourselves?
Stay tuned, the answers are coming up on the next episode of Inside Asia.
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Steve Stine
Founder & Host
Inside Asia
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Articles, Reports & Insights |
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Report: Nature Risk Rising: Why the Crises Engulfing Nature Matters for Business and the Economy,” World Economic Forum (in collaboration with PwC), January 19, 2020. [here]
This is the first in three scheduled WEF-backed reports on the Nature economy. In this report, the authors suggest that "$44 trillion of economic value generation – over half the world’s total GDP – is moderately or highly dependent on nature and its services.” If this report serves as the red flag to the crises before it, the second report (written in collaboration with Fraser’s firm AlphaBeta), offers areas and suggestions where business might do something about it.
Report: Deforestation and World Population Sustainability: A Quantitative Analysis, by Mauro Bologna and Garardo Aquino, Scientific Reports, May 6, 2020. [here]
The authors of this report honed in on deforestation of just one of many risks associated with climate change and by taking a thoroughly scientific approach, calculated the probability that we would intervene in time to prevent further devastation of our forests. The results are not hopeful: “Based on the current resource consumption rates and best estimate of technological rate growth our study shows that we have very low probability, less than 10% in most optimistic estimate, to survive without facing a catastrophic collapse.” As Fraser points out in our discussion, if corporations who either impact or are impacted by deforestation would simply coalesce around the theme of deforestation, we might have a chance of setting the benchmark for how corporations can make a difference AND save us all from extinction.
Book: This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate, by Naomi Klein, Publisher: Simon & Schuster, August 4, 2014. [here]
If you are a business leader and care about the environment and risks associated with climate change, then this is a must read. It is not always easy to confront certain truths, and the role that corporations and Capitalism have had in contributing to our current environmental crises is one of those unavoidable truths. Klein’s book is a New York Times best-seller and winner of the 2014 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Non-fiction, the book calls for a massive transformation of the “free-market,” addressing the need to constrain corporate power, strengthen local economies, and eliminate our dependence on fossil fuels in favor of more sustainable option.
Article: “This is Now the World’s Greatest Threat - And It’s Not Coronavirus,” World Economic Forum, July 21, 2020. [here]
If you are time-constrained and just can’t muster the energy to read either of the above listed reports or the recommended book, at the very least, read this overview article featured on the WEF website. The theme of this year’s WEF agenda is “The greatest reset,” where the organization advocates for new and drastic measures to address climate change before it’s too late. Every corporation has a role to play. Please read!
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Gove Depuy:
The Island & Bio-Diversity
| September 20, 2019 |
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My guest this week is Gove Depuy, sustainability consultant, community-based planner, project leader and an advocate for bio mimicry. What are we talking about? Islands, and the growing idea that islands might serve as learning ecosystems for new ways of communing with the Earth we inhabit.
It’s not an entirely new idea. In 1962, legendary author Aldous Huxley, wrote and published the book Island, as a utopian companion to his better known and more dystopian novel, Brave New World. Inspired by time spent in Bali, Huxley described a people living in harmony with nature. Today there’s a lot more traffic and a concerning amount of trash and plastic, but it’s still Bali – an island where animism and Hinduism blend to create a unique pact between humans in rhythm with the environment. I sat with Gove by the banks of one of Bali’s many picture-perfect rivers, adjacent to the Five Elements Retreat. It proved the perfect setting to talk about life in Bali, community-based projects, and ultimately, the promise of islands as a petri dish for exploring new, potentially more sustainable ways of living in the world. Amidst the thick, verdant jungle, cascading waterfalls and buzzing birds and insects, it’s hard to imagine we face a climate crisis of epic proportions. Yet, we do.
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David Emmett:
Asia's Environmental Crises
| March 19, 2018 |
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Nowhere else on the planet are threats to the environment are more real and the impacts more severe today than in Asia. This might come as a surprise to some. It shouldn’t. It’s a kind of perfect storm. There’s both a close proximity to the major drivers of environmental degradation—China, India, and Indonesia, to name a few—as well as a high demand for food, land, and water. Nowhere else is the challenge of balancing development and conservation more acutely felt. Other regions face similar challenges, but within a situation where the population density is much less. This is the magnitude of the challenge. Now is the time to talk about the issue. Our guest this week is David Emmett, Senior Vice President for Asia Pacific at Conservation International. His is an essential voice in the conversation, and also controversial one because of the willingness his organization has shown to work with corporations that have a less than stellar, often downright abysmal environmental record. Say what you want, but corporations have learned a few things about taking an idea to market. If the market, in this case, is the environment, why not engage companies to lend their managerial, financial and operational expertise in the name of environmental sustainability?
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Prefer reading vs. listening? |
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If podcasting isn't your thing, or you're just too busy to take 30 minutes to listen, check out my articles here on Linked-in where I set out to summarize each week’s conversation. We touch on a wide range of topics from healthcare to finance, politics to cleantech. I hope you’ll join us. |
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Steve Stine | LinkedIn
Check out professional insights posted by Steve Stine, Senior Regional Leadership Advisor and INSIDE ASIA radio talk show host
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