We are in the midst of a climate emergency that threatens life as we know it. Thankfully, our global economy and markets are finding new opportunities for investment in green technologies. This allows us to put a price tag on ecosystems which, advocates argue, are being destroyed because they currently have no economic value; the right price tag could be their saviour. But will that be enough to respond to the natural crises we are seeing today?

The trouble with the market-based financialized approach is that it reflects a deep ideological bias both toward private capital and to the idea that something is of value only if it provides returns – a legacy of liberalism’s deep roots in private property and dominion over nature. It is certain to entrench, rather than remedy, immense inequalities in the global economy, and have deeply problematic influence over which ecosystems are prioritised, and which ‘nature-based solutions’ pursued.

Similarly, finance has little interest in rectifying inequalities in access to nature across socioeconomic groups. Nor is it concerned with delivering justice for Indigenous communities and land defenders, communities of colour, and Global South nations who have long been leading the charge for nature’s protection.

In this talk, which is based on her new book, The Value of a Whale, Adrienne Buller will discuss the limits of financialization of nature as a solution to the multiple environmental crises we face today, and suggest an alternative path forward.

The talk and discussion will be followed by a reception.

About the speakers

Speaker: Adrienne Buller

Adrienne Buller is the Director of Research at the Common Wealth Think Tank. She has written extensively on intersections of climate and natural crises and the financial systems. Her writing and work has appeared in the Guardian, Jacobin, the New Statesman, New Left Review, and Financial Times, among others.

Discussant: Dr Nithya Natarajan

Dr Nithya Natarajan is a Lecturer in International Development. Her work focuses on South India and Cambodia, and explores agrarian change, rural-urban livelihoods, labour precarity, gender and debt. One of her key research interests is examining the role of climate change, the state political economy, and social relations in rural communities experiencing agrarian decline.