The UK Natural Capital has published a statistical bulletin on the estimations for financial and societal value of natural resources to people in the United Kingdom. The natural capital accounts are experimental statistics, which, however, provide impactful data on the relation between natural world, people and economy. The bulletin presents thirteen service accounts, accommodating assessments of the supplied quality and value services in the UK. The estimations together with the outcomes are divided in three groups, namely provisioning, regulatory and cultural.

Furthermore, the publication presents an asset value of the above mentioned estimations, referring to the long-term potential of a specific resource and its’ services to humans. Such examples are the fish stocks used as a food source, or the UK forest area, which is considered to sequester carbon over a sustained period of time. 

The asset values of the various sources have been estimated through the implementation of a net present value (NPV). The results inform on the stream of functions to be produced by natural resources over a certain timespan. 

Тhe main points of the bulletin are the following: 

• In 2018, the asset value of the aspects of UK natural capital we can currently value was estimated to be £921 billion.
• Living near publicly accessible green and blue spaces added £3,146 to the average property price.
• Over 5 billion nature-related visits within the UK were made in 2018, amounting to 10 billion hours.
• There were nearly three times the number of hot days in UK city regions in 2018 compared with 2017; urban green and blue space helps to mitigate the associated costs.

Find the statistical bulletin here.