The Future of Nature and Business, the second of three reports in the World Economic Forum's New Nature Economy series, provides the practical insights needed to take leadership in shifting towards a much needed nature-positive economy. As the world prepares to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting crisis, we are presented with an unprecedented clarion call, and opportunity, to change the way we eat, live, grow, build and power our liv...

A new report concludes that the benefits of protecting 30% of the world's land and ocean outweigh the costs by a factor of at least 5:1.COVID-19 and other zoonotic diseases are the direct result of the over-exploitation of nature and resources.Investing in nature and measures to prevent climate change would mean short-term net costs, but would be offset by financial benefits over time. In 2020, humanity is living the consequences of our broken re...

As the Productivity Commission confirmed this week, Australia's economy has enjoyed uninterrupted growth for 28 years straight. Specifically, our output of goods and services last financial year grew by 2%. Economists obviously see the growth of a national economy as good news – but what is it doing to the Earth? Capitalism demands limitless economic growth, yet research shows that trajectory is incompatible with a finite planet. If capitalism is...

A small boost in microlending to the developing world could lift more than 10.5 million people out of extreme poverty. That's one conclusion of my study, published last month in The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, which found that microfinance not only reduces how many households live in poverty but also how poor they are. Currently, 836 million people – or 12% of the world's population – experience extreme poverty, living off less than US$1.25 a...