Contributor(s): Professor Dieter Helm | Natural capital is what nature provides to us for free. Renewables - like species - keep on coming, provided we do not drive them towards extinction. Non-renewables - like oil and gas - can only be used once. Together, they are the foundation that ensures our survival and well-being, and the basis of all economic activity. In the face of the global, local, and national destruction of biodiversity and ecosystems, economist Dieter Helm offers a crucial set of strategies for establishing natural capital policy that is balanced, economically sustainable, and politically viable. Professor Dieter Helm (@Dieter_Helm) is Professor of Energy Policy and Fellow of New College, Oxford. Professor Giles Atkinson is Professor of Environmental Policy in the Department of Geography & Environment at LSE. The LSE Department of Geography & Environment is a centre of international academic excellence in economic, urban and development geography, environmental social science and climate change. The Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment (@GRI_LSE) is a world-leading centre for policy-relevant research and training on climate change and the environment, bringing together international expertise on economics, finance, geography, the environment, international development and political economy.