Ecosystem functioning, economic and social development, and climate change: what interactions?

Summary How can we assess the social cost of not maintaining biodiversity and ecosystems in a satisfactory state, particularly in the context of climate change? How can we design regulations and instruments to avoid this? This note provides an overview of these two questions. In particular, it emphasizes the maintenance of self-regulating services, without which ecosystems may not be able to provide the services we expect of them. It also stresses the need for coherence in public policies and an integrated vision that takes full account of the behavior and role of private actors.