The 2006 review of the economics of climate change, chaired by economist Nicholas Stern, served as a wake-up call to the need to respond to long-term climatic risks. Similarly, the final report of the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity study, due this October, is touted as a 'Stern review for nature'. It will no doubt make a grim read that presents the massive price of biodiversity loss, and the destruction of ecosystems and the services they supply. Organizers of the study - an outcome of the 2007 Potsdam meeting of environment ministers of G8 countries and the five main newly industrializing countries - hope that it, too, will snap policy-makers to attention.
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