Natural capital: economic benefits assessment

Appendix A

GFI study data extrapolation for Scotland

As time and region-specific data to calculate the finance gap was not always available to input into the GFI model in detail, it was usually necessary to adjust the raw data in some form. This entailed making certain assumptions where the data did not fit one of the three time horizons^[36] (which it usually did not) or clear evidence for Scotland was unavailable or deemed insufficient. As England was the sole UK country to have released a strategic policy paper on environmental policy at the time, it was assumed that the government level targets within the 25 Year Environment Plan were broadly applicable to the other UK countries and Overseas Territories. Apart from this overarching assumption, some of the most common extrapolation methods for time and region (or other location-based assumption) in the GFI study appear below:

• That X (some variable being measured) is proportional to area, population, share of net emissions, etc. (especially when Scotland-specific figures were unavailable);
• That spending is constant over time (i.e. current spending is representative of future spending); and
• That historic spending is representative of current spending.

Detailed timing assumptions per nature-based activity

Table A.1 details the timing assumptions for each nature-related activity by providing individual time horizons for their relevant enabling mechanisms.