As natural capital and biodiversity rise up the global agenda, Planet Tracker examines the economic implications of countries’ dependence on nature. International trade is dependent on nature. Around 40% of… read more →
View all articles by Carter Hoffman
By Carter Hoffman
As natural capital and biodiversity rise up the global agenda, Planet Tracker examines the economic implications of countries’ dependence on nature.
International trade is dependent on nature.
Around 40% of global output is dependent on natural resources, financial think tank Planet Tracker’s latest report highlights.
For some countries, more than 80% of exports are dependent on natural resources.
This raises questions about how well this natural capital is looked after and how well financial markets incorporate this knowledge into their models of the world.
By presenting a new metric of countries’ nature dependence based on trade, Planet Tracker reveals not only the scale of certain economies’ dependency on nature but also the results of this dependency.
Understanding this is crucial for reducing export risks as climate change accelerates and for building sustainable economies for nature-dependent exporters.
The new report:
Some of the report’s key findings include:
“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has pushed the international trade of natural resources – such as oil, gas, and wheat – to the top of the international agenda,” John Willis, director of research at Planet Tracker, said.
“But there are other systemic risks associated with the trade of natural resources that long pre-date the invasion.
“No country is immune to the challenges that nature is now facing, and the pressures they place on our world’s ecosystems are often out of sight, out of mind and, as a result, underregulated.
“Our latest paper shines a light on major issues relating to the international trade of natural resources in key areas and the avoidable risks to society they present.”
The underlying data of the report can be examined in further detail at the Planet Tracker NDE Interactive Dashboard.
[erratum: figures changed to reflect accurate statistics in the market]
Carter is a Research Associate at Trade Finance Global focusing on the impact of macroeconomic trends and emerging technologies on international trade.
He holds international business and science degrees from the European Business School in Germany as well as Brock University and Queen’s University in Canada where he served as the director of operations and finance for the student executive council and as an operations associate for the Queen’s University Alternative Asset Fund. Carter’s work has been featured in publications and articles supported by the SME Finance Forum, managed by the International Finance Corporation, World Trade Organization, and International Chamber of Commerce.
Carter is a graduate of the Trade Accelerator Program (TAP) through the Toronto Board of Trade and the head of international business development at the Canadian-based building supply exporting firm, The Great Egress Co. He is also a Certified International Trade Professional (CITP) and a member of the exam development panel for the Forum for International Trade Training (FITT) where he developed exam questions for the update of the CITP Professional Exam as part of FITT’s application for ISO 17024 Accreditation.
Comments are closed.