Introduction

 

Thursday 6th & Friday 7th October 2022
Intercontinental Hotel, Sydney, NSW


Organised by the NSW Branch
Brought to you from the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation.

 

Theme

The Symposium will tackle issues in understanding and applying natural capital perspectives on environmental management. Eminent speakers from the policy, finance, business and research worlds will discuss the opportunities and challenges in the natural capital space.

The Symposium is an opportunity to consider the current rapid development in the recognition of natural capital, as jurisdictions align legal and investment frameworks with our coming environment challenge. In particular, the NSW Government has released the NSW Natural Capital Statement of Intent, which sets the ambition for, and approach to, sustainably managing natural capital in NSW. It provides a pathway to guide and inform NSW Government decision - making to conserve and enhance environmental assets and services while ensuring the State’s economic prosperity.”

The Commonwealth is also undertaking a variety of market-based approaches to provide incentives to invest in environmental management and protection, including against climate risks. Most recently, the Commonwealth announced its intent to support the development of a biodiversity market, which will need to operate in alignment with existing state and international biodiversity trading schemes.

While governments are becoming more active with respect to natural capital, there is a critical need for thought leadership and leadership-by-example by members of the primary industries and financial services sectors.  The Symposium provides a unique opportunity to bring together government and non-government participants.

Topics will include the evolution of natural capital markets; the design and application of natural capital accounting; innovating with new environmental financial products; creating the conditions for investing in natural capital on private lands; creating the appropriate measures and metrics to assess environmental improvement.

Speaker Highlights

A prominent list of speakers have been accepted, including:

  • James Griffin, NSW Minister for the Environment and Heritage
  • Eli Fenichel, Assistant Director for the Natural Resource Economics and Accounting, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and Knobloch Family Professor of Natural Resource Economics, Yale University
  • Martijn Wilder, Pollination Group, Founder and CEO.  He is recognised as a global leader in climate law and investment and has advised governments and companies on innovative climate finance investments including the World's first REDD+ Green Bond.
  • John Finisdore, Point Advisory, Senior Manager, Natural Capital.  Prior to his role at Point Advisory, he led the World Resources Institute's Business and Ecosystem Services Project where he co-authored The Corporate Ecosystem Services Review and contributed to The Guide to Corporate Ecosystem Valuation and TEEB for Business and Enterprise.
  • Dr Georgina Kelly, NSW Department of Planning and Environment, Deputy Secretary.  She focuses on advancing NSW's leadership on biodiversity conservation - through markets, investment and targeted regulation.
  • Andrew Reeson, CSIRO, Research Team Leader. On joining CSIRO in 2004 he worked on the design and implementation of environmental policy tools. This included applying economic experiments to inform the design of the Emissions Reduction Fund and advising on major water programs. 
  • Professor Andrew Macintosh, ANU Law. Besides his academic role he is Chair, Emissions Reduction Assurance Committee and has extensive experience in emissions reduction governance.
  • Dr Jing Yu, Associate Professor in Finance.  She has a PhD degree in Finance from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Jing has research interests in the areas of green finance and corporate sustainability.
  • Dr Sue Fyfe is acting Branch Head for Environmental Science and Nature Based Solutions in the Biodiversity Markets, Economics and Environmental Science Division, Commonwealth Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.
  • Dr Karel (Karl) Nolles, Director of Aton Consulting Pty Ltd (Orange, NSW, Australia) and Visiting Professor, JGSEE, King Mongut University of Technology (Bangkok, Thailand).
  • Carl Obst, Director at the Institute for Development of Environmental-Economic Accounting - IDEEA Group. He was the lead author and editor of the United Nation’s System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) – the international standard for government work on accounting for natural capital and encompassing accounting for ecosystem and biodiversity values.
  • Greg Smith, is an environmental economist with CSIRO Land and Water based in Hobart.
  • Dr Sue Ogilvy, leads the Farming for the Future program, a public interest research and change program that aims to provide, as a public good, the evidence base, tools and resources for the agricultural sector to understand the relationship between differences in naural capital and differences in benefits to farm businesses and farming families.
  • Dr Daniel Gregg, is an environmental and agricultural economist with a focus on behavioural theories and interventions, production analysis, supply chain innovation and rural development.
  • Professor Jeff Connor, is at the University of South Australia, and specialises in quantitative economic, environmental and social integrated systems modelling.
  • Michelle Young, is a social scientist, and Director of the Sustainable Farms Initiative, ANU, where she leads a team of interdisciplinary experts across the fields of ecology, environmental accounting, economics and mental health.
  • Gillian Mayne, is the Director of Natural Capital Strategy & Investment in Queensland's Department of Environment and Science.
  • Nick Butcher, is the Board Chair of Australian Wildlife Conservancy, the largest private not for profit owner and manager of land for conservation in Australia.
  • Virginia Malley, Deputy Chair NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust, see Symposium Social Program.
  • Karin van Selm, has a role leading Rabobank's Wholesale Food & Agri client teams for Europe and Africa.
  • Warwick Ragg, was raised on a farm in the NSW Southern Highlands and has almost 30 years experience in rural and regional advocacy.
  • Katie McRobert, is an editorial, communications and project management specialist.
  • Niall Blair, is a former Minister for Primary Industries, former Minister for Trade and Industry, and former Minister for Regional Water.
  • Barry Irvin AM, has experience in the dairy industry and has been chair of Bega Cheese Limited since 2000.
  • Ben van Delden, has specialised in providing audit, accounting, innovation and business growth services to public and private organisations operating in agribusiness, consumer and industrial markets, transport and logistics, entertainment, media and real estate.

Learn more here.

 Register Here


Photo Credits

For image on this page:
Natural Capital Symposium Australasian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society

  1. Background: Clouds from the Skywalk in Dorrigo National Park: Barbara Webster/DPE
  2. Bar 1 & 2: Aerial landscape Joshua Smith/DPE
  3. Bar 3 & 4: Southern Right Whale Eubaelena australis Lachlan Hal/DPEl Staff user: Mladen Kovac, Director Centre for Advanced Analytics and Economics, DPE
  4. Bar 5 & 6: Farmland - cattle in Dubbo area: Peter Robey/DPE
  5. Bar 7 & 8: Split Rock walking track Leah Pippos/DPE
  6. Bar 9 & 10: Gang-gang cockatoo Callocephalon fimbriatum young male Helen Fallow/DPE Staff user: Mladen Kovac, Director Centre for Advanced Analytics and Economics, DPE