New Delhi, Oct 13 (IANS) By 2015, India should include calculations of how it was using up its air, water, soil, forests and other natural resources when preparing its national plan, Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh suggested here Tuesday.

Releasing a report on the economics of ecosystems and biodiversity, Ramesh rued that natural resources were not taken into account in the planning process due to questions about methodology. Most economists now agree that natural resources need to be accounted for and depreciated as they are used, just as physical resources — such as a computer or a car — are.

Underscoring the importance of natural resources, Ramesh pointed out that India’s forests capture 10 percent of the greenhouse gases emitted in the country.

Pavan Sukhdev, a senior official in Deutsche Bank who has led the team preparing the report, said: “In effect, the world’s economy is a sub-set of the larger economy of the natural resources and ecosystem services that sustain us.”

An interim report prepared by the team last year estimated that the current loss of global natural capital was worth $2-4.5 trillion per year. It has also been estimated that for an annual investment of $45 billion in protected areas alone, the world could secure the delivery of ecosystem services worth around $5 trillion a year.

Sukhdev said the study aims to “examine the economic costs of biodiversity decline and the costs and benefits of actions to reduce these losses”.

President of the International Union for Conservation of Nature Ashok Khosla said on the occasion that the value of ecosystem services worldwide had been estimated at $33 trillion.