The Natural Capital Initiative will be hosting and facilitating two key sessions at the major World Forum on Natural Capital, taking place in Edinburgh on 21st – 22nd November 2013. The Forum is aimed at providing “clear information on emerging risks and opportunities, with a focus on practical implications” to enable business “solve real-life business challenges”. The NCI sessions will focus on two themes:

1) Thursday 21st November: What synergies exist between private and public sector natural capital accounts? This session will entail presentations from those involved in designing public and private sector natural capital accounting processes, and will identify areas of cross-over and synergy between the two. How can corporate and government natural capital accounts be designed to deliver the most relevant, accurate, and usable information? What can the public and private sectors expect from and offer to each other?

Chair: Camilla Toulmin – Director, International Institute for Environment & Development
Panellists:

Ivo Mulder – Coordinator Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, UNEP Finance Initiative
Alan McGill – Partner, Sustainability & Climate Change, PwC
Carl Obst – editor of the United Nations System of Environmental and Economic Accounts
Rafeal Jiménez-Aybar – Director, GLOBE Natural Capital Initiative
Stefanie O’Gorman – Director of Economics and Policy, Jacobs Engineering Group

2) Friday 22nd November: International trade and Natural Capital accounting beyond borders: This panel session will explore how international trade in natural capital (e.g. water) affects the metrics and interpretation of Natural Capital Accounts. What do various accounting perspectives tell us (or mask) about the use and dependence on domestic versus foreign natural capital? How can governments account for dependencies on natural capital beyond their borders, often called their ‘international footprint’? How does trade affect measurements of sustainable consumption and production?

Chair: Alison Hester – Head of Safeguarding Natural Capital, James Hutton Institute, Secretariat member Natural Capital Initiative
Panellists:

Pushpam Kumar – Chief, Ecosystem Services Economics Unit, Division of Environment Programme Implementation, UNEP
Professor John Barrett – Professor of Sustainability Research, University of Leeds; Director, Centre for Sustainability Accounting
Daan Wensing – Managing Director, Leaders for Nature, IUCN NL
Mathis Wackernagel – President, Global Footprint Network
Barry Gardiner – MP, Shadow Minister for the Natural Environment & Fisheries
We are proud to be collaborating with the World Forum on Natural Capital in order to host these panels. We hope to see you there, for what is set to be a highly important, engaging, and richly-rewarding event. For tickets please go to: https://www.naturalcapitalforum.com/account/register