Transcript of my speech at the launch of the “The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity for Business Coalition” at the Singapore Botanic Gardens on 6 November 2012

We live in a world, which perhaps unwittingly, has gone through a series of inflexion points at a rate which is unprecedented. Let me cite a few of these.

First, our world population has now exceeded seven billion. Clearly, that is unprecedented. Not only that, but for the first time ever in human history, more than half of all human beings live in a city, and not in the rural countryside. This is another world first.