The Green Growth Knowledge Partnership’s Expert Group on Natural Capital was set up to help mainstream natural capital in global green growth activities and support stronger implementation of natural capital commitments in national economic plans. The working group – comprised of senior members of international organizations and leading research institutions, such as GGKP’s founding partners the World Bank, OECD, UNEP and GGGI – has made significant progress since it was set up two years ago.
Highlights for 2019 include:
Compiling natural capital policy use cases
One knowledge gap the GGKP expert group prioritized this year was the need to clearly communicate natural capital to governments and practitioners alike. To address this gap, the group produced a report that provides a comprehensive set of policy use cases, guidelines for exemplary natural capital interventions in green growth, and new insights for identifying natural capital success stories. The group presented the report to the UN Committee of Experts on Environmental-Economic Accounting (UNCEEA), the leading inter-governmental body in the field of environmental-economic accounting. It will form the basis of a collaborative call to action by members of the group to produce a new set of exemplary natural capital stories.
Integrating natural capital into OECD green growth policy reviews
In 2019, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) produced a national Green Growth Policy Review with a major focus on natural capital for the first time. The ground-breaking report focused on Indonesia, inspired by a key policy recommendation from working group Co-Chair Joe Grice, which was adopted by OECD member states and four Indonesian government ministries. While Grice commended OECD and Indonesia’s uptake of natural capital, he noted that future reviews would benefit from a more robust measurement framework.
Developing progress indicators for green growth and natural capital
In response to the need for a robust measurement framework for natural capital, the working group developed the Natural Capital Indicators Framework (NCIF). The development of the framework was led by Co-Chair Dr Paul Ekins and his team at University College London. The NCIF provides a unique and hitherto unseen effort to compile leading natural capital indicators into a single, coherent framework. The GGKP presented the framework at the 2019 Forum of Experts on SEEA Experimental Ecosystem Accounting in New York, which in turn fueled discussions at an expert workshop devoted to the framework and held in Geneva in July.
Addressing the green growth and natural capital data gap
To address the data gap that is recognized as a consistent roadblock to application of natural capital approaches, the working group collaborated with UNEP-WCMC to deliver a snapshot of existing natural capital data platforms. This snapshot assesses each database in terms of its accessibility, relevance and innovative spatial information, such as remote sensing data. Based on the results of this assessment, the group will put forward a set of proposals to improve natural capital data availability for GGKP partners, governments and businesses.
Responding to developing country needs for green growth and natural capital approaches
To make natural capital approaches more feasible in developing countries, the working group has begun developing an Integrated Policy Framework for green growth and natural capital. Led by Drs Ben Milligan and Alison Fairbrass at University College London, the framework combines the leading green growth approaches of GGKP partners to systematically integrate natural capital. It also addresses national capacity constraints – a key developing country concern – by seeking to align the advice of global organizations working with different line ministries and varied national commitments such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and post-2020 reformulations of the Aichi targets.
Working with Germany’s development agency to improve natural capital implementation
In 2019, GIZ’s Economics of Land Degradation (ELD) Initiative co-financed the application of a cutting-edge methodology for assessing national natural capital gaps in Africa, Central and South Asia. The methodology combines the GGKP’s natural capital-based approach with ELD’s tried and true methodology for land and soil restoration. With ELD’s support, GGKP is expanding its existing in-country mainstreaming efforts in Indonesia (in collaboration with the OECD) and Myanmar (in collaboration with GGGI) to India, Rwanda and Kyrgyzstan. These in-country applications will provide the opportunity for the working group, in partnership with Dr Anil Markandya of the Basque Centre for Climate Change, to expand the methodology to help countries deliver on land restoration targets by considering crucial cost-benefit trade-offs for achieving the SDGs.
Mainstreaming natural capital in green growth with GGGI and AfDB
The working group supported the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) to apply natural capital approaches to coastal landscape restoration in Myanmar. Meanwhile, the African Development Bank (AfDB) has submitted a request to work with GGKP and E4N partners to mainstream natural capital in its African lending operations. AfDB is a key partner for the working group’s work on natural infrastructure and finance in 2020.
Key lessons learned: Collaboration and scale for impact
A key lesson for GGKP this year has been the importance of collaboration. Collaboration with Economics for Nature (E4N) and GGKP partners has led to the successful co-creation of five cutting-edge, policy-relevant reports with leading institutions as well as the OECD policy review. Collaborative work on policy, metrics and data will be expanded in 2020 to include natural capital infrastructure and finance with leading partners such as UN PAGE, GGGI and AfDB. With new guidance, methods and tools under development for 2020 and beyond, the GGKP will also focus on two other impact areas: co-created research and institutional mainstreaming.
Another key lesson is the enormous scale required to achieve impact for nature. To achieve scale, several communities must be brought closer together. This includes working with E4N partners to deliver a Deal for Nature in 2020, and linking not only the policy and research communities but also finance, business and civil society. GGKP’s recently launched Green Finance Platform and Green Industry Platform are paving the way in this regard. In addition, it will be import for GGKP to deepen cooperation with its valued green growth and natural capital partners and on-the-ground stakeholders in the coming year.
If you have any questions or would like to be involved, contact John J. Maughan, Research Programme Manager, Green Growth Knowledge Platform (GGKP) at [email protected].
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About the GGKP Natural Capital Expert Working Group
The GGKP Working Group on Natural Capital explores state-of-the-art methods, models, data and tools to achieve its three goals of pushing forward the knowledge frontier around natural capital and green growth; mainstreaming natural capital in global green growth activities; and supporting stronger implementation of natural capital commitments in national economic plans. The group is comprised of 24 experts from across GGKP’s partner institutions, each with at least 10 years of experience working with natural capital. For more information, see About the Natural Capital Working Group.
Economics for Nature
The GGKP Working Group on Natural Capital was established in the context of the Economics for Nature (E4N) programme, a six-year initiative focused on ensuring that nature has a voice in economic and planning processes. The GGKP is part of the core team alongside the Green Economy Coalition (GEC), the Natural Capital Coalition, WWF France and Finance Watch.
MAVA Foundation
The MAVA Foundation, a Swiss-based philanthropic organization, has made the mainstreaming of natural capital into national development plans a key focus of its strategic programme for 2017-2022. It has committed to supporting the working group for five years.