Side Event

Changing Pace on public policy for biodiversity and ecosystem services: Focusing on innovative and effective policy solutions

Organizer
World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) AND OECD

Date and Time
17 October 2012 13:15 - 14:45

Meeting
Eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 11)

The Global Environment Outlook 5 illustrates the increasing pressure on biological diversity worldwide. The predominant threats remain habitat loss and degradation resulting from agriculture and urban development, overexploitation, pollution and invasive alien species. The OECD Environmental Outlook to 2050 also anticipates an additional 10 percent loss in terrestrial biodiversity within the next 30 years. Consequently, maintaining business as usual is not an option and governments collectively with the private sector are urged to effectively address these global environmental challenges and to prevent further irreversible damage. While business is often regarded as the primary problem, business is a crucial stakeholder that can help provide solutions to conserve biodiversity, support sustainable management of ecosystems and use of ecosystem services. Public policy frameworks and new finance instruments are necessary to scale and accelerate business action. Changing Pace, developed by WBCSD and released at Rio+20 summit, invites stakeholders, including governments and business leaders, to engage in a debate on the policies required to accelerate the development of a green economy. As government parties focus at COP 11 on policy change to help deliver on the CBD Aichi Biodiversity Targets, both OECD and WBCSD will provide new insights and recommendations on public policy options and priorities for biodiversity and ecosystems services. •OECD will present on new work Finance Mechanisms for Biodiversity: Examining Opportunities to Scale-up and Addressing Challenges •Building on its COP10 contribution on policy options Effective biodiversity and ecosystem policy and regulation, WBCSD will present a new set of case studies illustrating effective public policy implementation that best leverages business and markets forces in addressing biodiversity and ecosystem service challenges. The presentation will be followed by a discussion on how business and governments can optimize their collaboration.