Charted: The Economic Value of Nature vs. Global GDP
Charted: The Economic Value of Nature vs. Global GDP
Have you ever considered nature’s worth in dollars and cents?
To illustrate its immense value, we partnered with Zero Carbon Analytics to visualize the annual economic value that nature provides humans, using data from Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
$179 Trillion in Annual Value
The value that nature provides is typically broken into four ecosystem services. Namely:
- Regulating services: Nature’s systems that control climate, water, and air quality.
- Provisioning services: The tangible goods we rely on, from fresh water and food to timber and medicinal plants.
- Cultural services: The inspiration, recreation, and spiritual value we derive from nature.
- Supporting/habitat services: The processes that sustain ecosystems, from soil formation and nutrient cycling to providing homes for wildlife.
BCG estimates that the annual value of these four services is a whopping $179 trillion.
To put that sum into perspective, global GDP in 2023 was around $105 trillion (2023 dollars). That means nature provides ecosystem services 1.7 times greater in value than global GDP each year.
Let’s consider this sum broken down by the four ecosystem services.
| Ecosystem Service | Annual Value Provided |
|---|---|
| Regulating | $107 trillion |
| Cultural | $36 trillion |
| Habitat | $18 trillion |
| Provisioning | $18 trillion |
| TOTAL | $179 trillion |
Values have been updated to 2023 dollars, from the source’s 2019 estimates, using U.S. CPI inflation.
At $107 trillion annually, the most economically valuable ecosystem service is regulating.
According to BCG, this number is estimated by calculating the opportunity costs of losing these services. For instance, the value of climate regulation is calculated by multiplying ecosystems’ carbon sequestration rates by a carbon price per ton.
Preserving Nature’s Value
Beyond an intrinsic value, nature provides immense economic value for society.
Yet, continuing business as usual comes at a steep price, with nature’s decline projected to cost at least $479 billion per year by 2050, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature.
With that in mind, protecting nature may not just be about conservation—it can be an economic strategy for avoiding losses.
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