National Capital Ireland: Leading conversations on capital

Natural Capital Ireland is a non-profit organisation made up of over 800 members from the academic, public, private, and NGO sectors who are interested in the development and application of the natural capital approach to environmental and economic issues in Ireland.

The group began as an idea in 2013 with four people around a coffee table in Dublin and has since grown to lead the conversation on natural capital in Ireland. In its six years of existence, Natural Capital Ireland has:

• Launched the concept with Ireland’s Hidden Wealth conference in 2014;
• Co-delivered the sold-out National Biodiversity Conference at Dublin Castle in 2019;
• Built capacity by producing videos, infographics, and quick reads;
• Participated in original research such as the pioneering INCASE project, which is testing natural capital accounting at catchment scale in Ireland for the first time.

The policy backing for natural capital has never been stronger. The European Green Deal states that “all EU policies should contribute to preserving and restoring Europe’s natural capital” and the new EU Biodiversity Strategy states that by 2050, “the EU’s natural capital will be protected, valued and appropriately restored”.

In Ireland, this will be a bumper year for developing strategies to cope with the climate and biodiversity emergencies, which threaten our common future. Many crucial policies are up for review or publication, including:

• The National Development Plan
• The National Biodiversity Action Plan
• The Sustainable Development Goals National Implementation Plan
• The Agri-Food Strategy to 2030
• The National Land Use Plan

Natural Capital Ireland backs the recent EPA State of the Environment report, which called urgently for “a single overarching policy position – a vision to protect Ireland’s environment into the future”.

A failure to account properly for the environmental costs and environmental benefits of our actions results in incoherent and contradictory policy decisions at every level, with potentially disastrous results.

The increasing frequency of pandemics, for example, has been clearly linked by scientists to failure to understand the real costs of environmental degradation and wildlife habitat destruction.

The natural capital approach can provide this overarching policy coherence because it reveals in concrete detail all the ways in which our economic and social well-being depends on conserving and restoring flourishing environmental conditions. This approach can guide us towards better policies by taking all of these linkages fully into account.

Natural Capital Ireland looks forward to engaging in these policy consultations in 2021 and redoubling its efforts to advance the natural capital agenda in the community, in civil society organisations, in public debate, and in the business and finance communities.

To this end, we have elected a new Steering Committee, with representatives from across the island of Ireland, and from government departments, NGOs, and semi-state corporations, including Departments of Agriculture and Climate Action, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, Business in the Community, the Ulster Wildlife Trust, Northern Ireland Environment Link, Bord na Móna, Coillte, and Irish Water.

Furthermore, Natural Capital Ireland is seeking the support of contractors to deliver its programme of work for 2021, including the organisation of a Business & Biodiversity seminar and a Data for Nature conference.

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