WAVES is now part of the broader World Bank umbrella initiative,  the  Global Program for Sustainability (GPS)
 
WAVES/GPS Newsletter, Issue 54, May 2020
Loktak Lake landscape in Imphal, Manipur, India. Photo credit: Shikha A/Shutterstock
Dear colleagues, 

Together, we are facing a truly unprecedented situation. The global coronavirus pandemic is affecting all of us - our work, our communities and entire economies. We hope you and your families are staying safe and healthy.

The COVID-19 pandemic underscores strong links between human and planetary health, making the valuation of natural capital and ecosystem services more important than ever. In the Global Program on Sustainability we are looking at ways in which we can contribute to address the challenge. 

A key component of our effort is the "Road to Kunming" work - a series of analytical and outreach contributions to the development of the new Global Biodiversity Framework to be adopted at the next Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity. The purpose is to shed new light on the linkages between healthy ecosystems; healthy economic and financial systems; and on the policies that can maintain or restore that nexus.

This crisis is serving as a wakeup call to the financial sector that natural ecosystem and biodiversity loss are material risks which they need to start taking into consideration. The 'Green Swans' report from the Bank of International Settlement and Mark Carney's recent piece in the Economist are good examples of how the sector is starting to think about and articulate these issues making our work on integrating sustainability considerations in financial markets more timely and welcomed by the international financial community.

A new report benchmarking pension funds ESG reporting Sustainable Investment : Best Practice Disclosure Checklist for Pension Funds has been published under the GPS work program on embedding sustainability practices into institutional investor practices.

As we closely monitor the evolving impact, we are thinking of how to reshape the world after COVID-19 and implementing ongoing measures and creating tools to ensure that our work responds these new needs as nature will be an engine of recovery in a post corona virus world.

The newly formed Africa Natural capital accounting Community of Practice is organizing webinars to support countries' technical and institutional capacity on valuing nature and its services.

You are invited to visit our Knowledge Center to read newly-published accounts from the UK, Scotland, Brazil, and Guatemala.

On behalf of all of your colleagues at GPS, I wish you, your teams and your loved one's health and safety. 

The WAVES Team
Our News 
Over the last century, our species has increasingly dominated the earth, expanding, developing, growing ... but also polluting and depleting our non-renewable resources, creating irreversible losses in biodiversity.
 
What matters today is how we flatten the curve. What will matter tomorrow is how we stimulate economic recovery and ensure that economies are green, clean, and resilient. We can't do this without thinking about how to put natural capital to work for its people.
A regional learning and knowledge platform that brings together professionals from governments institutions, nongovernmental organizations and academia that are interested in or working on NCA in Africa. Set to be launched at the  African Forum on Green Economy.
 
A new report, Sustainable Investment: Best Practice Disclosure Checklist for Pension Funds, part of our work embedding sustainability practices into institutional investor practices, provides a checklist of the disclosures that asset owners' stakeholders might need. 
GPS Voices

" As countries rebuild their shattered economies, there is an opportunity to build back better and live in a more sustainable, "greener" way.  The stimulus packages that will be rolled out by governments and development institutions should boost the economy, support people and communities while also resulting in good environmental outcomes. "  
 
 
- Karin Erika Kemper, Global Director for the Environment, Natural Resources and Blue Economy Global Practice at the World Bank
New in the Knowledge Center
Upcoming Events
Africa Natural Capital Accounting Community of Practice
May 28, 2020
Webinar
Africa Natural Capital Accounting Community of Practice
June 4, 2020
Webinar






News from our Partners


The Scottish natural capital ecosystem service accounts, highlighting the relative importance of services provided by Scottish natural assets. Natural capital refers to physical and natural resources and the benefits these provide.

Natural capital accounts containing information on ecosystem services for woodlands in the UK.

The IBGE, together with the Ministry of the Environment and the National Water Agency put out the first results of the Environmental-Economic Accounting for Water - CEAA, for the 2013-2017 period. 

IUCN brought together a group of leading experts - with finance, conservation and engineering backgrounds - to explore how infrastructure finance and Nature-based Solutions (NbS) can work hand in hand to make infrastructure investments better, more durable, and financially more attractive.
This n ewsletter  is published by the GPS/WAVES Communications Team. We welcome your submissions of news, events and publications at [email protected]