Context
The Sustainable Development Goals 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. The Poverty Environment Partnership (PEP) – a global network working towards climate-resilient poverty reduction and inclusive green and blue economies – will host its 22nd meeting in New York in June 2017. This builds on PEP’s “Getting to Zero” (GtoZ) paper and 2016-18 PEP Strategy.
Objectives
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 eg. 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.
Organisation
The meeting will be at Tarrytown Estate New York with a possible field trip to the Catskills watershed. It will be co-hosted by the Governments of Austria and Finland, Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and the United Nations. The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and World Resources Institute (WRI) will be co-organisers.
Participants
Governments and UN missions, private companies and foundations, international organisations and civil society are welcome. Participants must cover travel and accommodation which costs at the venue ($250 per night). Please register by May 31st.
For further information
- On agenda of the PEP meeting: Paul Steele [email protected]
- On PEP logistics: Claire Hatfield [email protected]
Monday 19th June: WHY INVEST IN NATURAL CAPITAL FOR THE SDGs AND CLIMATE?
7:00 Breakfast available by Mary Duke Ballroom
8:30 Registration
9:00 Keynotes and Panel Discussion: Natural Capital Investment: a public and private priority
- Investing in Natural Capital: a priority for the international community (Amina J Mohammed (Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations and former Minister of Environment of Nigeria, tbc)
- Investing in Natural Capital: a priority for the private sector (Mike Bloomberg, former New York Mayor, business person and environmentalist, tbc)
- Investing in Natural Capital: a priority for developing countries (Ambassador Momin, Permanent Representative, Government of Bangladesh, Least Developed Country Chair)
Chair: Elliott Harris, UN Assistant Secretary-General, Director, UN Environment Programme
10:00 Introduction to Poverty Environment Partnership (PEP)
- Video: Getting to Zero: zero poverty, zero climate emission and zero loss of natural assets
- Getting to Zero overview (Pedro Conceicao, Director, Strategic Policy, UNDP)
- PEP Background, Strategy & work plan and PEP meeting objectives (Paul Steele, PEP Facilitator)
10:30 Coffee break
11:00 Country experience with investing in natural capital: Why, what and how?
- Country panels from the South and North, including Least Developed Countries, Middle Income Countries and OECD countries with government, private sector and civil society (supported by the LDC UN group, UN PEI, GEF, PAGE, GGGI, AsDB, WWF and others tbc)
13:00 Lunch Break
14:00 Why invest: Mainstreaming and Institutions to integrate natural capital into economics: Panel discussions in parallel on selected tools and inputs to PEP work plan
- Accounting by governments for natural capital (World Bank WAVES, GEF, UN, GIZ, IIED)
- Banking strategies for scaling up natural capital investments (Asian Development Bank, Global Environment Facility, African Development Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, European Investment Bank etc tbc)
- Natural capital in your hand (ICT, big data and mobile apps from WRI, Google etc. tbc)
15:30 Coffee/tea break
16:00 Report back
17:00 Close for the day
18.15 Drinks and soft launch of Natural Capital initiative of Green Economy Coalition (tbc)
19:00 Dinner available in main hall
TUESDAY 20th June: WHAT TO INVEST IN & HOW TO FINANCE NATURAL CAPITAL INVESTMENT?
7:00 Breakfast in main dinner room
8:30 Recap
9:00 What to invest in: Scaling up local ecosystem-based solutions: Panel discussions in parallel and inputs to PEP work plan
- Blue capital (Fiji, Sweden and CANARI tbc)
- Terrestrial ecosystems and protected areas (WWF and IUCN tbc)
- Urban ecosystems (eThekwini, New York, tbc)
10:30 Coffee/tea
11:00 Report to Plenary on local solution and inputs to PEP work plan
13:00 Lunch break
14:00 How to invest: Public and private finance and knowledge for natural capital investment: Panel discussions in parallel and inputs to PEP work plan
- Public finance - domestic financing (UNDP BIOFIN) and international (OECD, CBD)
- Private sector investment strategies (NCC, IFC, private investors tbc)
- Role of knowledge and science for natural capital: (GGKP, Universities, ESPA tbc)
15:30 Coffee Break
16:00 Report to Plenary on finance/knowledge and inputs to PEP work plan
17:00 Close
19:00 Dinner in main hall
Speaker: (Robert Repetto, tbc)
Wednesday 21st June: CONCLUSION AND NEXT STEPS
7:00 Breakfast
8:30 Overview of PEP Strategy and work plan
9:00 On-going work of the Poverty Environment Partnership: Break out groups
- Mainstreaming and Institutions for pro-poor environment and climate for the SDGs
o Learning and diagnostics for country readiness for SDGs (IIED)
o Mainstreaming toolkit and capacity for the SDGs (UNEP and UNDP PEI) - Local solutions for pro-poor environment and climate for the SDGs (DA, GEC, eThekwini tbc)
- Finance for pro-poor environment and climate for the SDGs: Environmental fiscal reforms (GIZ, World Bank, IIED, IMF, UNEP, OECD tbc)
- Communications and engagement for the PEP membership (ADB)
10:30 Coffee break
11:00 Bringing it all together: revised PEP Strategy and Work plan
12:00 Conclusion of PEP 22 and Next Steps for the PEP
13:00 Lunch
14:00 New Poverty Environment Investment (PEI) for SDGs by UNDP and UN Environment programme: partnership meeting with Technical Advisory Group and PEP members
Thursday June 22nd: FIELD TRIP (tbc)
8:00 Catskills field trip (tbc)
15:00 Return to Tarrytown