The effects of the coronavirus pandemic have been far-reaching and among its collateral damage is the arts industry, which has been all but decimated and the creatives within it left out in the cold. The arts, we know, are propped up by the self-employed. New or emerging artists, marginalised creators and fresh art school graduates, many with no outside support. Scotland’s creative industries are made up of 15,000 businesses employing more than 90,000 people (pre-Covid, at least). That doesn’t account for freelancers. Since Covid-19 hit almost a year ago, it is the creatives who have been left to pick up the pieces. Arts organisations pulled the plug on events and collaborative projects. Income was eviscerated. When you are a freelancer on a low income, you are only ever a handful of gigs away from falling into destitution.
Paul Steele is chief economist at IIED
Economics and nature conservation are closely linked. Evidence shows that the costs of biodiversity action are lower than the cost of inaction (Photo: Mokhamad Edliadi/CIFOR via Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
The Dasgupta Review – a mammoth 600-page treatise on the economics of biodiversity – places its faith in influencing future finance ministers.
But without tangible figures on the costs of inaction on biodiversity loss and fiscal and monetary policy recommendations, the review misses engaging current finance ministers and economic decision-makers, whose support is urgently needed to reverse the nature crisis.
This was illustrated by the glaring absence of UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak at last Tuesday’s launch, despite the UK Treasury commissioning the review a year ago and housing its well-staffed team. The government was instead represented by a short video message by the prime minister and environment minister.
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