In today’s session of the Environmental Audit Committee’s inquiry on the role of natural capital in the green economy, I asked the panel of experts whether they believed that profitability should be a primary motivation when replenishing our dying planet in the context of the climate crisis.

The panel consisted of: Dr Pernille Holtedahl, Peter Bachmann, Professor Guy Standing, and Professor David Hill CBE.

I asked this question by giving two statements:

• How do you maintain profitability and consumption growth on a dying planet?
• How do you replenish a dying planet in a way that ensures sustainable productive capacity?

I then asked which of these statements most accurately describes our current approach to natural capital, or the idea of monetising nature. The panel agreed with me that, disappointingly, the first statement matched our current approach more accurately.

Watch my question and their responses below.