It is precisely to assess these risks that the NGFS launched a dedicated task forcexxii earlier this year. I have the great honor to co-lead this task force with Saskia de Vries from the DNB. It includes many members from all over the world. 5  Page 6 sur 12 Luckily, we do not start from scratch. For instance, economists recognize that biodiversity enables ecosystems to provide essential services that sustain life on our planet (called “ecosystem services”). As they regenerate themselves, they are able to provide basic but essential goods (such as food, wood, water, etc.) but also regulation services (such as climate regulation, water purification or pollination) and cultural services such as touristic activities. Our economies are deeply dependent on these ecosystem services. A study indicates than half of global GDP is moderately or highly dependent on ecosystem servicesxxiii and another study finds that that the total economic value of ecosystem services at the global level amounts to more than annual global GDP.xxiv But let’s be careful: we also know that such monetary assessments of ecosystem services have many limitations. For instance, Robert Costanza and co-authors (in the study I just referred to) acknowledge that such assessments of ecosystem services help to increase the awareness of policy makers and economists about the importance of biodiversity, but have limited value in terms of decision-making. There are at least three reasons to proceed carefully here.

Those interested in these debates can read the following book: Christophe Bonneuil and Jean-Baptiste Fressoz’s book “The shock of the Anthropocene: The Earth, History and Us”. x Crutzen, P.J. (2002). “Geology of mankind: The Anthropocene”. Nature 415: 23 xi See e.g. : Feynman, J., and Ruzmaikin, A. (2007). “Climate Stability and the Development of Agricultural Societies.” Climatic Change 84 (3–4): 295–311. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-007-92481 xii Steffen, W., Rockström, J., Richardson, K., Lenton, T.M., Folke, C., Liverman, D., Summerhayes, C.P., et al. (2018). “Trajectories of the Earth System in the Anthropocene.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 115 (33): 8252–59. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1810141115. xiii Ripple, W.J, Wolf, C., Newsome, T.M., Barnard, P. Moomaw, P.R. (2019). “World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency.” BioScience. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biz088. xiv Article 1 of the NGFS states the following: “Objectives of the Central Banks and Supervisors Network for Greening the Financial System The Central Banks and Supervisors Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) is a group of Central Banks and prudential supervisory authorities willing, on a voluntary basis, to exchange experiences, share best practices, contribute to the development of environment and climate risk management in the financial sector, and to mobilize mainstream finance to support the transition toward a sustainable economy”. xv See NGFS Statement: statement_on_nature_related_financial_risks_-_final.pdf (ngfs.net) xvi NGFS and INSPIRE (2021), Central banking and supervision in the biosphere: An agenda for action on biodiversity loss, financial risk and system stability. NGFS Occasional Paper. xvii van Toor, J., Piljic, D., Schellekens, G., van Oorschot, M., & Kok, M. (2020).