Brett Day’s research while affiliated with University of Exeter and other places

What is this page?


This page lists works of an author who doesn't have a ResearchGate profile or hasn't added the works to their profile yet. It is automatically generated from public (personal) data to further our legitimate goal of comprehensive and accurate scientific recordkeeping. If you are this author and want this page removed, please let us know.

Publications (105)


Using the natural capital framework to integrate biodiversity into sustainable, efficient and equitable environmental-economic decision-making
  • Article
  • Full-text available

January 2025

·

42 Reads

·

2 Citations

Amy R. Binner

·

Ethan T. Addicott

·

·

[...]

·

One of Georgina Mace’s many transformational research contributions was to provide a universally applicable framework for incorporating any or all elements and connections of the natural environment within conventional economic decision-making. We apply this natural capital framework to consider the overall effects of a suite of land-use policy options intended to promote the conservation and renewal of biodiversity. Options considered include sharing, sparing, three-compartment sparing, rewilding and organic farming regimes. Each is assessed in terms of its impact on both domestic and global biodiversity. Reinforced by an empirical application considering land use in Great Britain, we show that while policy has prioritized sharing options, evidence supports land sparing and three-compartment approaches as more efficient, sustainable and equitable alternatives. This article is part of the discussion meeting issue ‘Bending the curve towards nature recovery: building on Georgina Mace's legacy for a biodiverse future’

Download

How to make land use policy decisions: Integrating science and economics to deliver connected climate, biodiversity, and food objectives

November 2024

·

222 Reads

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Land use change is crucial to addressing the existential threats of climate change and biodiversity loss while enhancing food security [M. Zurek et al. , Science 376 , 1416–1421 (2022)]. The interconnected and spatially varying nature of the impacts of land use change means that these challenges must be addressed simultaneously [H.-O. Pörtner et al. , Science 380 , eabl4881 (2023)]. However, governments commonly focus on single issues, incentivizing land use change via “Flat-Rate” subsidies offering constant per hectare payments, uptake of which is determined by the economic circumstances of landowners rather than the integrated environmental outcomes that will be delivered [G. Q. Bull et al. , Forest Policy Econ. 9 , 13–31 (2006)]. Here, we compare Flat-Rate subsidies to two alternatives: “Land Use Scenario” allocation of subsidies through consultation across stakeholders and interested parties; and a “Natural Capital” approach which targets subsidies according to expected ecosystem service response. This comparison is achieved by developing a comprehensive decision support system, integrating new and existing natural, physical, and economic science models to quantify environmental, agricultural, and economic outcomes. Applying this system to the United Kingdom’s net zero commitment to increase carbon storage via afforestation, we show that the three approaches result in significantly different outcomes in terms of where planting occurs, their environmental consequences, and economic costs and benefits. The Flat-Rate approach actually increases net carbon emissions while Land Use Scenario allocation yields poor economic outcomes. The Natural Capital targeted approach outperforms both alternatives, providing the highest possible social values while satisfying net zero commitments.



Natural capital approaches for the optimal design of policies for nature recovery

April 2024

·

122 Reads

·

5 Citations

By embedding a spatially explicit ecosystem services modelling tool within a policy simulator we examine the insights that natural capital analysis can bring to the design of policies for nature recovery. Our study is illustrated through a case example of policies incentivising the establishment of new natural habitat in England. We find that a policy mirroring the current practice of offering payments per hectare of habitat creation fails to break even, delivering less value in improved flows of ecosystem services than public money spent and only 26% of that which is theoretically achievable. Using optimization methods, we discover that progressively more efficient outcomes are delivered by policies that optimally price activities (34%), quantities of environmental change (55%) and ecosystem service value flows (81%). Further, we show that additionally attaining targets for unmonetized ecosystem services (in our case, biodiversity) demands trade-offs in delivery of monetized services. For some policy instruments it is not even possible to achieve the targets. Finally, we establish that extending policy instruments to offer payments for unmonetized services delivers target-achieving and value-maximizing policy designs. Our findings reveal that policy design is of first-order importance in determining the efficiency and efficacy of programmes pursuing nature recovery. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Bringing nature into decision-making’.



Does local Natural Capital Accounting deliver useful policy and management information? A case study of Dartmoor and Exmoor National Parks

February 2023

·

81 Reads

·

13 Citations

Journal of Environmental Management

Natural capital accounting provides a systematic framework through which to quantify the benefits of natural assets. National-scale applications have demonstrated the feasibility of developing such accounts and their value as a tool to support environmental policy and management decisions. Building on that success, there have been increasing calls for sub-national organisations (for example, protected area authorities and water companies) to develop their own natural capital accounts. As we document in this paper, recent efforts by local organisations in the UK to produce such accounts have tended to rely on a set of 'standard practice' methods, many borrowed directly from national natural capital accounting exercises. In this paper, we review those methods and apply them in producing natural capital accounts for two UK National Parks. Working with the National Park Authorities, we critically assess the usefulness of those accounts to inform local land management. On account of data gaps and significant sensitivity to methodological assumptions, our research shows that these local accounts are considered of limited practical use for land management decision making at a local scale. Through specific illustrative examples, we show that natural capital accounts for local decision-making can be improved through: the inclusion of fit-for-purpose data and valuation methods, the consideration of uncertainties, and the incorporation of ecological information and spatial aspects. We also highlight the need for the development of both standardised guidelines and readily-available tools to quantify and value ecosystem services.



Illustrative example of the implications of imposing exclusion zones (e.g. National Parks) on where energy infrastructure can be located
Overview of the steps performed by the ADVENT-NEV model
Exclusion zones
Electricity generation from solar farms, onshore wind farms and bioenergy power stations (fuelled by domestically sourced bioenergy crops) in 2050 ranging from low to high estimates derived from existing energy pathways
Spatial distribution of solar farms when different exclusion zones are imposed (maps) and the corresponding cost imposed on the energy system (bar charts) for low, medium and high pathways. All results assuming market costs are minimised. Insets provided of south English coastline

+4

The Financial and Environmental Consequences of Renewable Energy Exclusion Zones

January 2023

·

248 Reads

·

9 Citations

Environmental and Resource Economics

As countries decarbonise, the competition for land between energy generation, nature conservation and food production will likely increase. To counter this, modelling, and sometimes energy policies, use exclusion zones to restrict energy deployment from land deemed as important to society. This paper applies the spatially-explicit ADVENT-NEV model to Great Britain to determine the cost imposed on the energy system when either environmental or food production exclusion zones are applied. Results show that exclusion zones impose a cost of up to £0.63 billion (B), £19.17 B and £1.33 B for the solar, wind, and bioenergy pathways. These costs give an indication of the value being placed on protecting these areas of land. When multiple exclusions are imposed on bioenergy, the high pathway is infeasible indicating a more flexible approach may be needed to meet net zero ambitions. The model also shows how the value of ecosystem services changes when exclusion zones are applied, highlighting how some exclusions increase non-market costs whereas others decrease them. In several cases exclusion zones are shown to increase social costs, the opposite of their intended use. For these exclusions to be justifiable, the unobserved values missing from the model must be as large as these increases.


Overview of the design of the survey-based, randomized controlled experiment
Summary of the sequence of information presented to the survey respondents (that is, a baseline scenario followed by Policy Instrument 1 and Policy Instrument 2) in each of the three policy streams (CIT in green, HIT in blue and UT/CHT in orange).
Average change (from the baseline) in p.p.m.e. by food group across the different policy streams and policy instruments
a, The average changes in p.p.m.e. across respondents in the CIT policy stream. Diamonds and dots indicate the average changes in p.p.m.e. with the application of the Carbon Information instrument and the Carbon (Information and) Tax instruments, respectively. b, The average changes in p.p.m.e. across respondents in the UT/CHT policy stream. Diamonds and dots indicate the average changes in p.p.m.e. with the application of the Unlabelled Tax and the Carbon + Health Tax instruments, respectively. The bars show the 95% confidence intervals, based on normality assumptions. The food groups are ordered from low emissions per kg (or litre) to high emissions per kg (or litre). Note: in each scenario where taxes are applied, the responses from all tax rate groups in that scenario are pooled. Figure 4 discusses the impact of varying tax rates. p.p.m.e., per-person monthly emissions.
Source data
Yearly reductions in average per-person GHG emissions (kg CO2e) from food consumption across all policy streams and policy instruments
The green dots indicate the yearly reduction in average per-person food basket emissions from the baseline for respondents in the CIT policy stream. The blue dots indicate the yearly reduction in average per-person food basket emissions from the baseline for respondents in the HIT policy stream. The orange dots indicate the yearly reduction in average per-person food basket emissions from the baseline for respondents in the UT/CHT policy stream. The bars show the 95% confidence intervals, based on normality assumptions. Note: in each scenario where taxes are applied, the responses from all tax rate groups in that scenario are pooled. Figure 4 discusses the impact of varying tax rates. Supplementary Table 7 provides the test results for the statistical significance of the difference in mean emission reductions across the policy instruments.
Source data
Effects of different food tax rates on GHG emission reductions
a, The relationship between different levels of Carbon Tax derived using True Cost Accounting principles and food emission reductions per person per annum, with the application of the Carbon Tax policy instrument. b, The relationship between different levels of Carbon Tax and GHG emissions, as in a, but with the addition of a Health Tax linked to the Nutri-Score rating of each food category, reflecting the application of a Carbon + Health Tax policy instrument (Methods and Supplementary Table 8). As there is no perfect correlation between carbon emissions and health, the vertical axis in b lists the Carbon Tax amount to which the Health Tax amount is added. The two vertical axes are therefore not identical in absolute terms, and the full details are presented in Supplementary Table 8. However, both graphs (a and b) reveal that the rate of emission reductions diminishes as the level of taxes increases. The bars indicate the 95% confidence intervals, calculated on the basis of normality distribution assumptions.
Source data
Average change (from the baseline) in per-person monthly volume of purchases (p.p.m.v.p.) by food group across the different policy streams and policy instruments
a, Average changes in p.p.m.v.p. across the respondents in the HIT policy stream. The light-blue diamonds and dark-blue dots indicate the average changes in p.p.m.v.p. with the application of the Health Information instrument and the Health (Information and) Tax instruments, respectively. b, Average changes in p.p.m.v.p. across the respondents in the UT/CHT policy stream. The light-blue diamonds and dark-blue dots indicate the average changes in p.p.m.v.p. with the application of the Unlabelled Tax and Carbon + Health Tax instruments, respectively. The bars show the 95% confidence intervals, based on normality assumptions. The food groups are ordered on the basis of their Nutri-Scores from A (most healthy) to E (least healthy). Nutriscore logo credit: Nutri-Score/Santé Publique France.
Source data
Combined carbon and health taxes outperform single-purpose information or fiscal measures in designing sustainable food policies

May 2022

·

139 Reads

·

29 Citations

Nature Food

The food system is a major source of both environmental and health challenges. Yet, the extent to which policy-induced changes in the patterns of food demand address these challenges remains poorly understood. Using a survey-based, randomized controlled experiment with 5,912 respondents from the United Kingdom, we evaluate the potential effect of carbon and/or health taxes, information and combined tax and information strategies on food purchase patterns and the resulting impact on greenhouse gas emissions and dietary health. Our results show that while information on the carbon and/or health characteristics of food is relevant, the imposition of taxes exerts the most substantial effects on food purchasing decisions. Furthermore, while carbon or health taxes are best at separately targeting emissions or dietary health challenges, respectively, a combined carbon and health tax policy maximizes benefits in terms of both environmental and health outcomes. We show that such a combined policy could contribute to around one third of the reductions in residual emissions required to achieve the United Kingdom’s 2050 net-zero commitments, while discouraging the purchase of especially unhealthy snacks, sugary drinks and alcohol and increasing the purchase of fruit and vegetables.


A review of planting principles to identify the right place for the right tree for ‘net zero plus’ woodlands: Applying a place‐based natural capital framework for sustainable, efficient and equitable (SEE) decisions

May 2022

·

579 Reads

·

14 Citations

We outline the principles of the natural capital approach to decision making and apply these to the contemporary challenge of very significantly expanding woodlands as contribution to attaining net zero emissions of greenhouse gases. Drawing on the case of the UK, we argue that a single focus upon carbon storage alone is likely to overlook the other ‘net zero plus’ benefits which woodlands can deliver. A review of the literature considers the wide variety of potential benefits which woodlands can provide, together with costs such as foregone alternative land uses. We argue that decision making must consider all of these potential benefits and costs for the right locations to be planted with the right trees. The paper closes by reviewing the decision support systems necessary to incorporate this information into policy and decision making. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.


Citations (66)


... In contrast, those who are the most impacted by biodiversity loss-such as the world's marginalized communities, those still at school or those not yet born-have little economic power to effect political change or affect policy. Important developments in economic valuation and decision-making in relation to natural capital are introduced by Binner et al. [21], and in the context of financial markets by MacKenzie et al. [22], given that routine investments, such as pensions and mortgages, are increasingly imperilled by the consequences of climate change and the destruction of nature within our lifetimes. Both approaches to transformed societies argue for far greater transparency in terms of the effects of biodiversity, especially over long temporal and spatial scales. ...

Reference:

How should we bend the curve of biodiversity loss to build a just and sustainable future?
Using the natural capital framework to integrate biodiversity into sustainable, efficient and equitable environmental-economic decision-making

... A particular challenge here is that increasing flexibility of schemes to accommodate regional variation in costs, opportunities and threats (e.g. climate change vulnerability) may lead to increasing administrative costs, whereas simplifying a scheme to minimise costs can make it more likely to fail because it lacks flexibility to deliver for biodiversity or other ecosystem services (Day et al., 2024). Thus, a key aspect of AES design is achieving a balance between flexibility and cost effectiveness, with the objective being to maximise the diversity of AES options within budget constraints to provide maximum flexibility and specificity for making choices about the placement of management in the landscape (Nguyen et al., 2022). ...

Natural capital approaches for the optimal design of policies for nature recovery

... The second option is easily implemented in hard-to-reach areas, but difficult because of its excessive costs and the limited financial capacity of customers to pay [7,8]. Among the main trade-offs to consider are issues related to land management and community development, particularly the spatial requirements of energy facilities [9,10]. In many cases, the land needed for these facilities conflicts with alternative land uses such as agriculture and grazing, in addition to biodiversity conservation and land protection concerns [11]. ...

Spatial context matters: Assessing how future renewable energy pathways will impact nature and society
  • Citing Article
  • October 2023

Renewable Energy

... Lehmann and Tafarte (2024) extend the analysis by considering the effect of wind turbine siting on further impact indicators and decomposing the total effect into an output and a substitution effect. Delafield et al. (2024) apply environmental and food production * Corresponding author. ...

The Financial and Environmental Consequences of Renewable Energy Exclusion Zones

Environmental and Resource Economics

... Natural capital, which refers to the habitats and ecosystems that form the basis of our natural environment, offers a wide range of valuable commodities and services, such as food, wood, clean air and water, and recreational activities (Faccioli et al., 2023). The concept of natural capital accounting (NCA) originated from natural capital, which views nature as a productive system that supplies people with valued commodities and services (Wackernagel et al., 1999;Wang et al., 2024). ...

Does local Natural Capital Accounting deliver useful policy and management information? A case study of Dartmoor and Exmoor National Parks
  • Citing Article
  • February 2023

Journal of Environmental Management

... Suppose that a landowner under a PES contract faces a shock that pushes him to cut down half a hectare of forest. His behavior thereafter is likely to depend on whether he has signed a fixed 1 While this type of device has been used for many years in the USA for the provision of various ecosystem services (Latacz-Lohmann and Schilizzi, 2005;Cramton et al., 2021;Balmford et al., 2023), there is no equivalent for the conservation of forests in tropical areas (Jack, 2013). ...

Pricing Rules for Pes Auctions: Evidence from a Field Experiment
  • Citing Article
  • January 2022

SSRN Electronic Journal

... Supply chains and consumers are guided by ecolabels acting as markers of adherence to sustainability benchmarks, thus bolstering consumer confidence and incentivising environmentally responsible land management (D'Souza et al. 2021;Meis-Harris et al. 2021). Increasing environmental awareness, in combination with rising costs for livestock production resulting from either taxation or certification premiums, lead to a decrease in the demand for animal-based products (Faccioli et al. 2022;Taillie et al. 2023). These developments take place within a wider policy context aiming for the creation of a low-carbon green economy in which economic growth is decoupled from resource use and adverse environmental impacts (OECD 2011). ...

Combined carbon and health taxes outperform single-purpose information or fiscal measures in designing sustainable food policies

Nature Food

... Mechanisms that encourage biodiversity using nature-based climate solutions are gaining traction in the global arena (Seddon et al., 2021), and many countries are exploring programmes (e.g., EU Biodiversity Finance Programme, A-NZ Ministry for the Environment Biodiversity Credit System) that incentivise landowners for increasing biodiversity on productive land (Norton et al., 2020). Thus, the integration of trees in pastoral landscapes can provide multiple pathways for meeting sustainable development goals (Bateman et al., 2023). ...

A review of planting principles to identify the right place for the right tree for ‘net zero plus’ woodlands: Applying a place‐based natural capital framework for sustainable, efficient and equitable (SEE) decisions

... In addition, amplification is exacerbated by human interventions that affect estuarine geometry such as deepening of the channel, straightening, narrowing by land reclamation and constructions (Temmerman et al., 2004(Temmerman et al., , 2013Familkhalili and Talke, 2016;Talke and Jay, 2020). Therefore, several studies have recently explored the potential of restoring estuarine floodplains and thus the natural water storage capacity, which has often been implemented by means of managed realignment (MR) (Smolders et al., 2015;Fairchild et al., 2021;Weisscher et al., 2022). MR constitutes the breaching or removal of the most seaward dike line in order to allow water exchange, dampening of tidal or flood waves and the (re-) establishment of wetlands such as salt-and freshwater marshes (French, 2006;Esteves, 2014). ...

Coastal wetlands mitigate storm flooding and associated costs in estuaries