Going beyond carbon: An “Earth System Impact” Score to Better Capture Corporate and Investment Impacts on the Earth System

Four interactions – changes in climate affecting water runoff; changes in climate affecting vegetation cover; changes in vegetation cover affecting climate; and changes in vegetation cover affecting water runoff – are deemed of utmost importance for understanding the impact on the Earth system on policy-relevant timeframes.  While these nature-related impacts are essential to consider and capture because they have local impacts on a range of ecosystem functions on which companies and economies depend, they also fundamentally affect our ability to mitigate and adapt to a changing climate.  Furthermore, climate, land and water interact and affect each other in various ways, such that climate change can be exacerbated by degraded ecosystems, which in turn are dependent on water.