The US federal government has released draft guidelines to support public agencies in including ecosystem services when doing cost-benefit analyses.

A draft was published on Tuesday for public comments by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) and the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).

While stopping short of imposing new requirements on agencies, the guidelines ask planners to consider – and preferably put a dollar value on – ecosystem services.

“Considering ecosystem services, broadly defined, in benefit-cost analyses helps agencies understand relevant tradeoffs or complementarities among different ecosystem services and with other costs and benefits,” said the draft.

“It also helps agencies avoid situations in which the value of specific ecosystem services are implicitly given no weight or disproportionate weight in an analysis.”

The guidelines follow on from a roadmap released by the Biden administration in April on nature-based solutions.

“Because nature provides us with so many things without cost, these benefits – called ‘ecosystem services’ – are not always fully captured in benefit-cost analysis, which the US government has used for decades as a way to check that regulations and investments are making a positive impact on Americans’ lives,” OIRA Administrator Richard L. Revesz and OSTP Director Arati Prabhakar wrote in a blog post.

“Failing to fully account for nature’s bounty has led to under-valuing and erosion of our nation’s natural assets. When we account for our environment, we are able to harness opportunities to confront climate change, promote prosperous and resilient communities, and invest in strong infrastructure.”

OIRA and OSTP expect it will take around a year to finalise and implement the guidelines.

While only a first step on the way, the initiative was welcomed by observers who have been wanting the US to play a bigger role on natural ecosystem protection as well as on the development of natural capital accounting.

“This initiative is more than a policy shift; it’s a call to action for all of us in the private sector to reevaluate the way we value nature in our business decisions,” Rob Wreglesworth, principal ecologist and innovation lead at UK-based Environment Bank, said in a comment on LinkedIn.

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