Prize question: How much is nature worth?

"We are particularly pleased that this work received recognition because it is based on fundamental economic theory about how the valuation and worth of ecosystem services from nature increases as scarcities change," says Drupp. "We distilled this into a simple theoretical formula that can be used in political processes and policy advising."

The project was sparked at an expert workshop organised by the UK Treasury to update Britain’s guidelines on evaluating public investments. "We were asked for practical advice on how to factor environmental scarcity into economic analyses,” Drupp recalls. “At that moment, we realised the economic community lacked a simple, effective approach."

This realisation prompted Drupp and his colleagues to synthesise their collective insight. The resulting methodology provides decision-makers with tools that account for both present values and future scarcity of natural resources. This enables more accurate cost-benefit analyses for environmental policies and infrastructure projects, helping governments to incorporate ecological considerations into economic planning.

As Drupp notes, it corrects a significant "downward bias" in conventional valuations, which can help ensure that ecosystems receive their rightful weight in public decisions. When applied to estimating the social cost of carbon emissions – the burden society carries due to climate damage – Drupp's prior related research has shown that neglecting relative changes in ecosystem scarcity undervalues the real costs by over fifty per cent. This can lead to insufficient investments in preserving nature, with lasting negative consequences.

Drupp and his colleagues will present their research at international conferences and participate in the Frontiers Planet Prize Award Ceremony on 17 June at the Villars Symposium in the western Swiss Vaud Alps. Three International Champions will be selected from nineteen national winners, each receiving USD 1 million to scale up their research.

For D-MTEC and ETH Zurich, Drupp's appointment and recent recognition underscore a deepening commitment to sustainability economics. "It was a fantastic collaboration bringing together experts from around the globe to distil abstract theory into actionable insights and to inform real-world decisions directly," Drupp says. “It can contribute to ensuring that economic policies are better aligned with improving the well-being of future generations.”