Environmental changes caused by climate change and air pollution caused by economic activities damage society.The amount of damage is estimated by a method called "Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA)".This time, using the current amount of damage estimated by this method as a baseline, and using the highly accurate and comprehensive "LIME model" developed in Japan that estimates the social importance of damage mitigation by the economic evaluation method, it has been used in 19 countries around the world. We analyzed data from a large-scale simultaneous survey of more than 6,000 adult men and women living in Japan.

　As a result, biodiversity conservation measures are prioritized in high-income countries (GDP / person $ 1.6 or more), and policies to improve human health are prioritized in middle-income countries or less (less than $ 1.6). There was a tendency.

　In countries with short life expectancy and high income inequality (Gini coefficient), human health tended to be prioritized over biodiversity conservation.However, even in high-income countries, there was a tendency to prioritize human health in the case of poverty and vulnerable groups, and in low-income countries, in the case of high-income groups, priority was given to the conservation of biodiversity.

　Furthermore, regardless of the country of residence, the higher the individual's subjective well-being and relative income level, the higher the amount of money (willingness to pay) that can be paid for all mitigation of environmental damage.

　Addressing cross-country inequality and domestic inequality and well-being will support the implementation of effective environmental policies. The LIME model is expected to develop into environmental accounting including the global supply chain, estimation of social costs of carbon, and evaluation of biodiversity conservation activities.

Paper information:[Nature Sustainability] Explaining the diverse values ​​assigned to environmental benefits across countries