Investing in Natural Capital

Poverty Environment Partnership (PEP22)

How to invest: Public finance: domestic and international financing

Panel discussions in parallel and inputs to PEP work plan

Tuesday 20th June 14:00-15:30 / Session 2 Why invest: Mainstreaming and Institutions to integrate natural capital into economics. “Public finance - domestic and international financing”
Panel (45 minutes)
Chair: Markus Lehmann, Head, Economic Policy Unit, Convention on Biological Diversity-TBC
  • Dr.KhatibuKazungu, Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance of Tanzania (tbc)
  • Sonam Yarphel, Gross National Happiness Commission of Bhutan (tbc)
  • Massimiliano Riva, Specialist, Innovative Finance, United Nations Development Programme
  • Katia Karousakis, Biodiversity Team Leader, Climate Change, Biodiversity and Water Division, Environment Directorate, OECD
  • Matti Nummelin, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Finland
Discussion (45 minutes)

Overall PEP context: The SDGs and Paris Climate Agreement have brought considerable focus on poverty reduction and climate change. Central to both poverty and climate, yet receiving much less attention is natural capital: life on land (SDG 15) and life in the water (SDG 14). Investing in sustainable management and conservation of terrestrial and marine ecosystems is key to the transition to an inclusive green and blue economy. PEP22 is hosted by the Poverty Environment Partnership (PEP) – a global network working towards climate-resilient poverty reduction and inclusive green and blue economies. Its audienceinclude governments, private companies, international organisations and civil society. The aim of PEP22 meeting and follow-up is to share knowledge, develop partnerships and support country level implementation to address three aspects of investing in natural capital:

  • WHY -Mainstreaming and institutions for natural capital: tools to integrate natural capital into economic decision-making e.g. accounting, fiscal revenues, institutional reforms;
  • WHAT - Local solutions for natural capital scaled up: supporting and scaling local ecosystem-based solutions, including community ecosystem-based adaptation;
  • HOW - Finance: how to finance natural capital investment, bringing together public and private and domestic and international finance.

The objective of the session is to discuss the latest advances, trends and methodologies to influence public (national and international) finance in natural capital. We know natural capital is important for achieving the SDGs but only limited results were achieved in persuading public financiers to invest.

There are three framing questions:

  1. What policies,tools and approaches are being used and developed to influence public (domestic and international) investment criteria and allocation towards natural capital?
  2. What are the key barriers to scaling up finance and how can these be overcome?
  3. What lessons have been learned from efforts to mainstream natural capital into ODA portfolios and how can PEP members strengthen this?

This sessions starts with a panel discussion. Each speaker will have 5minutes to introduce their topic and answer questions from the moderator.The moderatorwill then summarise the main points and open the floor to a wider discussion with the participants.

Remember: keep it simple, keep it flowing, and keep on time!

1