World Wildlife Day: Innovative finance at JNCC
By Mark Adams
To celebrate World Wildlife Day on 3 March, our latest blog post introduces Mark Adams, JNCC’s Principal Biodiversity Economist.
United Nations World Wildlife Day (WWD) is celebrated every year on 3 March. This day holds significance as the day that the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) was signed in 1973. WWD has now become the global annual event dedicated to wildlife.
People everywhere rely on wildlife and biodiversity-based resources to meet our needs - from food, to fuel, medicines, housing, and clothing. With over 1 million species estimated to be threatened with extinction, and facing the intensifying triple planetary crisis, innovative finance for wildlife conservation is more urgent than ever.
Our economic system is embedded in nature, making biodiversity loss a significant threat to financial stability, along with the other benefits that nature provides. There is growing interest in innovative financial approaches and the collaborative approaches needed to ensure sustainable funding for biodiversity.
Mark Adams, our Principal Biodiversity Economist, joined JNCC last year and has been chatting to us about himself and his role in this constantly-evolving area.
How did nature inspire you as a child?
I was born in rural Lincolnshire but when I was a child I moved to Stockport which is not exactly teeming with nature. Being an economist my job doesn’t let me outside too much and most of my jobs have forced me to live in big cities. After I spent a year living in North Carolina in the Smoky Mountains I realised I didn’t want to have to live in a city again. Now I live at the edge of the Peak District which may not be quite as spectacular as the Appalachians but I enjoy being close to the hills.
What did you do before you joined JNCC?
I spent most of my early career in the US. I moved to Washington DC for my Masters’ and ended up getting a PhD in Economics, and also working on public policy (including a short stint interning at the Environmental Protection Agency). After a short stint outside DC (including a year teaching Economics at a university in North Carolina and another working on public policy in Chicago) I moved back to the UK. Most recently I joined Defra to work on Net Zero policy although somehow I picked Fluorinated Gases which are about the only part of Defra which has nothing to do with nature.
What does an average day at JNCC look like for you?
After a year at JNCC I’m not sure I’ve ever had an average day. The biggest challenge, which also the most interesting part of the job, is working across the entire organization. People here work on an incredible range of subjects but they all link to economics somehow. I’m constantly being taught about new subjects by experts in their field.
To give a bit more background on my day to day, my work focuses on four key themes:
- Natural Capital Ecosystem Accounting to help us integrate the benefits which nature provides such as flood management and carbon storage into our economic models of the world, so that policymakers can better understand the impact of biodiversity loss.
- Leading the UK Nature Markets Engagement Group, working with all four nations to increase the flow of private investments into restoration and protection of marine and terrestrial habitats.
- Supporting the UK’s transition to a sustainable blue and green economy. This includes working with colleagues in UK governments deliver better outcomes for people and the planet.
- Building partnerships with the economic research, development and innovation community to explore and apply novel economic approaches that have the potential to further nature recovery.
What is the most exciting piece of work you’re currently involved in?
There is a huge challenge right now where nature protection is sometimes perceived as being anti-growth. But working in JNCC I can see so many areas where nature restoration is actually critical for growing a resilient economy. By taking those ecological arguments and reframing them from an economic angle we can help policymakers understand where nature, and JNCC, fits into government priorities.
Could you give us an example of how innovative finance can help protect biodiversity?
It can be tempting to think of finance as a magical tool but ultimately, restoring nature has to be a collaborative effort and requires leadership from government. What is impressive about market mechanisms is their ability to change the way businesses engage with the problem. At Defra I was responsible for reforming the Fluorinated Gas regulation, which regulates the global warming gases used in a lot of important devices such as heat pumps and inhalers. Businesses tend to see regulations as burdens to be avoided or minimized but when policymakers introduced a pollution market they came to see reducing pollution as something that gave them a competitive advantage.