Keynote Day 3
Keynote speaker: Edward B. Barbier
The current lack of investment in nature-based solutions is the result of two key policy failures – the underpricing and underfunding of nature. If natural areas are priced too cheaply, then converting them to agriculture, forestry and other land uses is less costly than protecting or preserving habitats. Underfunding nature further reduces the incentives for conservation and restoration. Ending the underpricing of natural landscape requires removing environmentally harmful subsidies and adopting policies that place an additional cost on habitat loss and degradation. Overcoming the funding gap means expanding public and private sources of financing nature, particularly for poorer countries, such as biodiversity offsets, payments for ecosystem services, debt-for-nature swaps, green bonds, sustainable supply chains and international environmental agreements.
Speakers
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Keynote Speaker
Edward B. Barbier
Professor in the Department of Economics, Colorado State University
The Economics and Financing of Nature-Based Solutions: Challenges and OpportunitiesEdward B. Barbier is a University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Economics, Colorado State University. He is an environmental and resource economist and a highly cited scholar on global environmental and sustainability issues. His latest book is Economics for a Fragile Planet, Cambridge University Press.