The United Nations' Millennium Ecosystem Assessment report has been published today. Copies of the report are available by registering at the MEA website.

Several news stories have covered the more extreme elements of the report, e.g. "The state of the world? It is on the brink of disaster"

Notably, the report contains an interesting discussion of the fact that markets often do not value resources or 'ecosystem services' (pp.40-41 of the PDF discuss 'Economics and incentives').

The "promising intervention" of eliminating harmful subsidies is something that we might all agree with [minus the beneficiaries - Archer Daniels Midland et al]. According to the report,

Government subsidies paid to the agricultural sectors of OECD countries between 2001 and 2003 averaged over $324 billion annually, or one-third the global value of agricultural products in 2000.

Astonishing!