On natural capital: the value of the world around us

How should we measure economic progress in an age of ecological crisis?

Join us for a conversation with Partha Dasgupta, Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of Cambridge, as he discusses his latest book On Natural Capital where he lays out a seminal and groundbreaking new approach to economics. Challenging everything that has come before, he asks, what if we were to put a value on nature just as we value everything else?

This event offers a unique opportunity to hear directly from one of the world’s leading economists on environment and sustainability, whose work has shaped global debates on how we value and protect the natural world.

Meet our speaker and chair

Partha Dasgupta is the Frank Ramsey Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge. He is a fellow of the Royal Society and a foreign member of the US National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. He was awarded the 2021 Kew International Medal of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and in 2022 was appointed Knight Grand Cross of the British Empire by King Charles III for ‘services to economics and the natural environment’.

Giles Atkinson joined the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, as its Acting Director, in September 2024. He had previously been an Associate of GRI since its inception, and joined LSE’s Department of Geography & Environment in January 1999.

More about this event

The Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment (@GRI_LSE) was established by the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2008 to create a world-leading multidisciplinary centre for policy-relevant research and training on climate change and the environment, bringing together international expertise from across LSE and beyond, including on economics, finance, geography, the environment, science, law, international relations, development and political science.

Launched in 2025, the Global School of Sustainability at LSE (GSoS) is the centre of social science expertise for sustainability impact at LSE. We work in partnerships across the LSE community and beyond to advance pioneering sustainability research and global policy engagement.

The event is supported by the Department of Geography and Environment (@LSEGeography), a centre of international academic excellence in economic, urban and development geography, environmental social science and climate change.

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