Now that the Rio+20 summit is over, experts and the public at large have got busy analysing its outcome document. The media has already declared the conclave on sustainable development, held in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro between June 20 and 22, a failure. It is true that unlike the summit in 1992—where three conventions and the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) were born—Rio+20 did not provide the stuff media could chew for days. The summit, however, did make a signature statement on the pathway of sustainability.

The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity reports were born out of an initiative in 2007 to produce an analysis of the economics of biodiversity loss parallel to that of existing analysis of climate change. The reports do not preach to the committed environmentalist who already values nature.