Valuing the nation’s natural assets

Australia’s environmental assets are worth about $4.8 billion, according to a report by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The director of the ABS Centre for Environmental Studies, Michael Vardon says this figure is based on “natural capital made up of land, mineral, energy and timber resources”.

Launching the report in Canberra, Vardon said the ABS was “not able to value everything in the environment at this stage, but what we can value is still very large.”