Professor Ben Groom, Dragon Capital Chair in Biodiversity Economics at the University of Exeter, has been invited by the Economic Society of Australia to tour the country as its 2026 Eminent Speaker. From 4 to 21 November, he will visit six leading universities across five cities, giving seminars, public lectures and workshops, and meeting staff and doctoral students.

The tour brings together all three of the Chair’s research themes: the value of biodiversity, climate change and intergenerational fairness.

Melbourne (4–9 November): At Monash University, Ben opens the tour with a department seminar at Caulfield asking whether nature markets are a solution to environmental degradation. Economists often describe biodiversity loss as a problem of “missing markets”, but markets only work well under demanding conditions and with strong institutions. The talk looks at what nature markets have achieved, where they have fallen short, and what this means for future policy. He follows this with a public lecture in Melbourne’s city centre on Empirical Extinction Risk, joint work with Loris Andre (Paris School of Economics) and Frank Venmans (London School of Economics).

Canberra (10 November): Ben presents Empirical Extinction Risk at the Arndt–Corden Department of Economics seminar at the Australian National University’s Crawford School of Public Policy.

Sydney (11–15 November): Seminars at the University of Sydney and the University of New South Wales, where he will also present His Majesty’s Treasury Social Discount Rate Review, written with Mark Freeman (University of York). The discount rate decides how much weight government appraisal gives to costs and benefits that fall on future generations.

Brisbane (16–18 November): At the University of Queensland, Ben speaks on the Social Discount Rate Review in the Applied Lecture Series, alongside meetings with colleagues.

Perth (19–21 November): The tour ends at the University of Western Australia with a Policy Impact Workshop on nature markets. It will draw on experience in the United Kingdom, such as Biodiversity Net Gain, and ask what lessons apply in Australia. A Business School lecture follows on Carbon Removals and Additionality in Dynamic Forests. Trust in forest carbon offsets fell sharply after 2023. This work asks how temporary carbon removals can still have real value if additionality and risk can be measured properly.

Flights for the tour have been carbon offset through the Gola Rainforest Project at a ratio of 3:1.

Summaries of the research behind the talks are available at dragonchair.org.uk