I should like to start my remarks with a couple of anecdotes.

Transcription

1 Opening Remarks by TONY LONG, Director WWF, during the MAES HIGH-LEVEL CONFERENCE Charlemagne building, 170 rue de la Loi, 1040 Brussels, Gasperi & Jenkins rooms 22/05/2014 I should like to start my remarks with a couple of anecdotes. The first is to share with you something that caught my eye from a publication from a philanthropic Foundation, a grant-giving foundation in other words, which I read about just last week. I won t name the Foundation but it is one of several that are now becoming increasingly concerned about what we might call the Tragedy of the Oceans. The oceans and seas, or its blue natural capital, contribute immensely towards the formation of the planet s great natural capital with the numerous ecosystem services they produce. The following are examples of marine ecosystem services: gas regulation (regulation of atmospheric chemical composition, in particular CO2 and nitrogen absorption); climate regulation; natural disturbances regulation (storms protection, flood control); coastal protection; water regulation (regulation of hydrologic flows); water supply; soil formation and erosion control; nutrient cycling; waste treatment; food production and habitat for fish stocks (nurseries, habitat for migratory species); production of raw materials (fossil fuels, sands and gravels); genetic resources (source of biological materials for medicine, cosmetics, products for materials sciences, genes development, etc.);

2 a source of renewable energy (wind, waves, tidal, biofuels from algae and temperature or salt gradients); a natural infrastructure for traffic corridors of maritime transportation (shipping); space for recreation (maritime tourism industries, including cruise shipping, marinas, sailing and other sports, such as surfing or diving); a source of new resources, such as minerals, rare earths and methane hydrates; or a place for new uses like future offshore ports, fish farms and large renewable energy parks; and, finally, they provide us with important cultural services including aesthetic, artistic, educational, spiritual and scientific values. The sentence concludes: oceans contribute, therefore, a great deal to our wellbeing, both directly (for instance with fishing, fossil fuel energy, seaborne transport, or recreation), or indirectly (with its regulatory/recycling function). A World Bank study undertaken in 2008 estimated that the total annual figure of all marine ecosystem services for which a market already existed amounted to over USD 20 trillion. I used this quote for my opening remarks because I think in just a few sentences the words capture better than whatever I can say about ecosystem services. And the complexity of what that would mean in mapping terms. And planning terms to make sure there is optimal allocation among the various uses and reduction of overlap or competition. And then imagine the same that can be said for terrestrial systems. Forests, savannas, wetlands, dunes, watersheds and so on. And then imagine mapping what I have just described. We are truly on a new threshold of a new challenge of public policy-making. But that takes me to my second anecdote. For 10 years I have served on the sustainability advisory committee of a major US-based multi-national chemical and energy company Dow chemical. In 2005 we started elaborating the sustainability goals for the next decade. Add a biodiversity goal I pleaded. No we cannot they replied. We do not understand it. And we cannot measure it. And even if we could, it would not apply to us as a chemical company. Yes you can, I answered read the Millenium Ecosystem Assessment. That will tell you how it s done. One thing leads to another. 10 years later biodiversity is still not a formal goal in the company. But it has entered a 10 million dollar project with The Nature

3 Conservancy in the US precisely to calculate the value of ecosystem service for the company. Let me give you a few examples of whay they are doing: A freshwater analysis and the impact of climate change on the expected frequency and duration of drought periods in the Brazos River Basin which the Dow Chemical Plant at Freeport shares for its water with the City of Houston and which consumes more than the city itself Looking at the role of reforestation at scale in South Texas to improve ambient air quality, particularly to reduce components that form ozone Examining the role of habitat protection in coastal zone management for coastal risk management including extreme weather events and storm surges Optimising forest protection in the sugar cane growing regions of Brazil where Dow sources ethanol for plastics production particularly to reduce habitat fragmentation, promote biodiversity, improve water quality, nutrient retention for drinking water and carbon sequestration. The reasons for mentioning this example of Dow and The Nature Conservancy and I urge you all to look it up on either of their websites are obvious. First, we have come a long way in 10 years. Ecosystem services are now part of the corporate culture of Dow. I have no doubt at the beginning it was a curious experiment. Now there is a strong business case water supply, coastal risk management, compliance with air quality standards, sustainable sugarcane sourcing - all go the heart of the company planning. And interestingly, if you do go to the websites, you will see that they all require a spatial planning component. A mapping exercise. And so it is not just public policy that has to take the lead. This maybe a text book example of where corporate, regulatory and NGO collaboration all come together in enlightened self-interest. Despite these two rather optimistic starting points in my remarks, the fact remains that for every enlightened Foundation or enlightened chemical company, or NGO like TNC or WWF, a key reason why nature degradation is escalating is that the value of its services is still largely invisible to decision makers in business and governments. We need to calculate the value of natural capital because we cannot manage what is not measured. The current set of indicators used to guide public policy decisions (based predominantly on the GDP - gross domestic product), does not adequately reflect our dependence on nature or the way in which consumption and production are continuing to erode the natural capital on which we depend. The invisibility of natural capital leads to sub- optimal decision-making, which will surely undermine long-term development and even survivability.

4 It has been 40 years that we know there is an need to go beyond GDP in the choice of metrics that guide current policy decisions, and to integrate the value of natural capital into reporting and decision systems at the national, regional and local levels. Together with the Club of Rome, Eurostat, the European Parliament WWF has been sounding the alarm for over 20 years about overreliance on this credible but extraordinarily narrow and constrained macroeconomic indicator. It is still not too late to make this happen. It must happen if we want to give ourselves the proper indicators for the new development model refocusing on well-being and quality of life instead of short term economic growth. The green economy model that WWF supports offers a unique chance for Europe to exit the crisis in a sustainable way with more innovation, more (green) jobs, more environmental protection and more social cohesion. It is fitting in this election week to consider the fact that EU citizens are exhausted of the EU macroeconomic focus of the last 4 years: the euro, the debts, the banks, the bonuses, the budget cuts this is isolating the EU from its citizens and threatening the EU project as a whole. People want to hear that decision makers care about their well-being, and this clearly includes their environment according to any poll. Europe must renew its environmental leadership. This important conference today is a good start to becoming more tangible in the ecosystems analysis, mapping, valuation, planning and public policy development arenas specifically and the further strengthening of environmental policy more generally. WWF welcomes the EU efforts carried out so far to support the integration of the natural values in the decision making processes. We support the MAES efforts, the subject of this conference, in the context of action 5 of the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020, a common effort of the EC and the MSs, and the Convention on Biological Diversity commitments (in particular Aichi target 2), and of course the EU commitments of the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020 (action 5 of the EU biodiversity strategy. We also welcome the initial efforts that some EU member states are countries are starting to develop. The Natural Capital Committee in the UK is one example which interestingly reports to the Chancellor of the Exchequer Chancellor and not to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. We welcome the European Environment Agency s efforts in pioneering the development of the Experimental Module on Ecosystems Accounting, an important contribution of this technical and scientific challenge 1. 1 An experimental framework for ecosystem capital accounting in Europe - EEA,

5 And we welcome the Environmental Economic Accounts Regulation from 2011, which includes the possibility of adding a module on ecosystems accounting in the future. Actually proposing such a module as soon as possible would be a good step in the implementation of the EU commitments to ecosystem valuation and could be an objective of today s conference to help bring it about. Key to all these developments is constructing the knowledge base. This is where MAES plays a crucial role. We need to ensure that these national assessments are done adequately and swiftly. And here we, all actors, including the EC and MSs, need to increase our efforts. To conclude, I am sure we agree that natural capital accounting is a crucial tool to better manage our economy s dependency on the environment. Also to raise awareness of the role that nature plays in human well-being, especially if it is organized under an internationally recognized standard. We should also keep in mind that ecosystem valuation is an anthropocentric approach that focuses on human benefits; but this should not undermine the importance of the intrinsic value of nature, which needs to be adequately acknowledged in any related policy framework. Although ecosystem accounting is still in an experimental phase in many countries, the processes need to speed up significantly to achieve existing commitments and targets by WWF is committed to this goal, eg through our efforts through the global Natural Capital Project. We support the EU MAES experience and in particular and trust today s conference will lead to significant advances in this direction. Ends