An ex-ANZ employee who operates an eco-tourism property in far north Queensland is set to become the next Sir Nicholas Stern with a United Nations Environment Program report he helped author to appear in October. The report will warn of humanity's profligate spending of the earth's environmental capital.

Pavan Sukhdev worked in financial markets for the ANZ Bank in India and London from 1983 to 1994. He then joined Deutsche Bank to head up their Global Markets Division in Mumbai, where he held a number of roles before moving to London to become chief operating officer of the bank's Global Emerging Markets Division. He is now chairman of the bank's Global Markets Centre in Mumbai.

Sukhdev took a two-year sabbatical from his bank duties to write the study on The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB).

He has also been active in establishing a number of NGOs operating in areas of conservation and sustainability.

The report will detail changes that will involve "a wholesale revolution in the way humans do business, consume, and think about their lives", according to a Guardian story by Juliette Jowit.