2 minutes to fix nature

At the end of one of today's sessions at the Global Nature Positive Summit 2024 panellists Carlos Manuel Rodriguez , Mona Ainu'u, Dr Ken Henry and Pavan Sukhdev , were asked by Valerie Hickey for 2 minute summaries of what we can do to realise our ambition for nature.

Mona Ainu'u: I have a role in the Pacific region as the Climate Champion for Agenda and Social Inclusion. This is a role that I believe in wholeheartedly, and it's a positive role encouraging and empowering our women. The majority of Pacific Islands really don't have that many women in leadership roles, but in particular decision-making roles. So advocating for women is very important, and it's important that you allow us at the decision-making table.

I always think to myself, as a mother, if you carry life for nine months, you automatically become protective of that life. And it's the same with nature. We are nurturers of life, we're nurturers of nature. So it's very important for us women to be at the table of decision-making.

And I'm not discriminating against the other gender because I also advocate for boys and men. But it's at this stage in life that I think women, especially in the Pacific, have started off on the back foot. Our hierarchy has always been male-dominated in a lot of areas, but it is so, so important that we allow our women to be at the table. So that's what I call for to make happen. It's important for us to go out to international spaces and advocate for what is happening in climate change in the Pacific. We, as women, are there prior, during, and after all these natural disasters. We are mothers. So it's really important for other perspectives to come in and help shape policies.

When you talk about governments, this is something that I'm really passionate about as well because it's important to bring accountability and transparency to a lot of what we are doing. But the reality in the Pacific is we need more women. And I'm really happy to say that Tanya and I are taking the lead. And to all the young ones in the audience, I'd like to see you at COP as well, and in the future.

Valerie Hickey: Amen sister! Pavan, I wanted to ask you next. Another pillar of moving from nature-negative to nature-positive is converging around data and metrics. How do we do that?

Pavan Sukhdev: Well, I think firstly, we need to get away from this thinking that, "Oh, there's not enough data." There’s so much data. The problem is swimming in the right place, not ending up at the wrong end of it. So given the data exists, what you need is a framework, which means: What should you measure and value? And then after that, agree on a methodology: How should you value and measure, so that people are able to compare? Otherwise, there’ll be so much confusion. So I think the effort has to be on framework and methodology, not so much the data. I think there's enough happening there.

A lot of us—my own company is going to do something which we've done with Wharton School and with INSEAD in France. We're going to find a university in Australia to give them all of the impact data for the ASX 200—so the biggest Australian companies—for the purpose of research and informing people, and informing companies themselves. So I think there’s enough on the data side. What’s happening positively is that, yes, on impacts, there is a group called the International Foundation for Valuing Impacts and another one called the Value Balancing Alliance. They are combining forces to create one standard methodology for valuing impacts. It’s only a year away, so you just have to hold your breath for a bit, but it’ll be there.

And then I think we should just start using it. Meanwhile, let’s at least recognize and start making the changes in anticipation that are needed. So if your energy sourcing is largely fossil fuel, change it towards less fossil fuel. If your materials efficiency or materials usage is damaging and has plastics in it, well, think of ways of changing that. So there are ideas, business ideas, that will challenge your staff, that will create innovation and enterprise. Actually, it’ll buy you more intelligent young people, committed to you, because you are committed to them. So I remain an optimist.

Valerie Hickey: I think it’s so lovely to hear from the private sector. It’s not about threats, it’s about opportunities. It’s built on sharing data, which is not always something we hear from the private sector. Sharing money also matters. Carlos Manuel, what is your two-minute teaser on making sure that the custodians of the land have access to finance?

Carlos Manuel: Well, that's a great question. It goes beyond rights, by the way. Very few countries do have legal systems that recognise the proper rights, not just rights to the land but rights to the resources, particularly biodiversity. When we're talking about biochemicals and genetic resources, there are all kinds of loopholes. But let me finish a little bit on nature-positive governance by giving a very concrete example that I believe everybody will understand clearly.

In 2018, I was the Minister of Environment and Energy in Costa Rica. That’s my title in Costa Rica. The Minister of Environment and Energy manages all natural resources, renewable and non-renewable. I was invited in 2018 to a meeting of energy ministers from Latin America, a big gathering in Buenos Aires. We all introduced ourselves, and I was the last one in the room. Everybody introduced themselves, and I said, "I’m Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, the Minister of Environment and Energy from Costa Rica." Everyone in the room looked at me. And the chair, the Minister of Energy of Argentina, pointed at me in a very unpleasant manner and said, "Minister, you are in the wrong meeting. This is a meeting of energy ministers." And I said, "No, I’m also the Minister of Energy."

I was invited to explain why, 20 years earlier, we banned fossil fuel extraction in Costa Rica. I was explaining the outcome: we doubled the size of our forests, tripled the economy, doubled the population, and went 100% renewable in the electric sector. But I was upset by the fact that this was 2018, three years after the Paris Agreement, and the ministers knew nothing about the agreement. They were planning for more oil and gas. I told them we have an addiction to oil and gas, and it's like a person with a drinking problem—you don’t go from whiskey to beer to solve it. You address the problem head-on.

So, we'll never achieve sustainable progress with the wrong institutional setting. This is why I would like to conclude by saying that nature-positive governance, as the aggregate of national, international, and systemic policy coherence, is the missing link that has inhibited, and will continue to inhibit, our progress toward sustainability. Thank you.

Valerie Hickey: Thank you, Carlos. I’m going to ask you if you have 30 seconds, as I’m watching the clock and we’re standing between you and lunch. How do we get finance ministers to take this seriously?

Ken Henry: Well, I think the way we do it is by saying, "You’re committed to reasonably ambitious climate goals." I would be more ambitious myself, of course, but I don’t have to get elected. But they nevertheless have reasonably ambitious goals. And I would be asking, if I were a finance minister, "What is the least economically and socially disruptive way of achieving our climate commitments?" And you know what? They all come back to nature repair. They all come back to nature-positive solutions.

I’d say the opportunity here—and this is why I’m optimistic—is immense. We can design our climate policies and our nature repair or nature-positive policies in a sophisticated, integrated way. I know it can be done. And I know that in Australia, for example, we can achieve our net-zero goals. We can achieve massive nature repair, well beyond what we've committed to in the Kunming-Montreal Agreement, at no cost to the tax base. It's not a magic pudding, though I quite like that expression being in Australia. It’s not a magic pudding. It’s not a silver bullet either, but it’s pretty close.

Valerie Hickey: Thank you, Ken. And before I give the final word to the minister to tell us what she wants us to bring with us when we work the valley in two weeks, I think this panel has brought up issues that are critical to the discussion about moving from nature-negative to nature-positive and doing the kind of nature repair we need. Carlos Manuel started by mentioning that governments are spending pennies on repairing nature and conserving it while spending 1.5 trillion on burning it down. Without nature-positive governance, nothing will change.

Part of what that means is moving from thinking about green projects to building green economies because that's the only way to have a lasting impact. It’s the only way to have inclusive economies that bring everyone to the table—whether it’s the private sector, the financial sector, or households. That becomes incredibly important, and it has to be built on partnerships. You've heard it in this family and in the first panel. It must be built around the custodianship and self-determination of the men and women who live on the land and who have to live with the decisions made about their land long after the rest of us have gone home.

So, with that, Minister, can I give you the final word to tell us: What do you want us to take with us to Cali? How can we magnify your voice and the voice of Pacific nations and Indigenous peoples everywhere?

Mona Ainu'u: I think we have to be more ambitious in trying to make change. The reality for us in the Pacific is that we are drowning. There's a lot of impact from climate change. I have one island—I can't just drive somewhere overnight to escape to another island. We have to be more ambitious and create all these innovative ideas, bring them to the table, and allow the international space to act.

And another thing—stop talking. We need to see action. That is what matters most for us.

Thank you to the panellists, I believe this transcript is as accurate as I could make it.