[Welcome Remarks] 4th Session of the Webinar Series on the Economics of Biodiversity
Welcome Remarks of ACB Executive Director Theresa Mundita Lim
The Economics of Biodiversity: The ASEAN Context
Session 4: Transforming Budget and Financial Institutions: Learning from Existing Work and Sharing Future Plans
10:00 – 12:00 (GMT+8) 11 August 2021
His Excellency Igor Driesmans, Ambassador of the European Union to the ASEAN,
His Excellency Bounleua Sinxayvoravong, Deputy Minister of Finance of Lao PDR,
Ms. Dian Lestari, Director of Center for Climate Change Financing and Multilateral Policy of Indonesia,
Dr. Bruce J. Tolentino, Member of the Monetary Board, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas
Distinguished representatives of the ASEAN Member States and partner institutions
Our esteemed experts, colleagues, ladies, and gentlemen, good morning and good evening. It is an honour to welcome you all to the Fourth Webinar Series on the Economics of Biodiversity. I am pleased that we have reached the fourth session of this webinar series with great interest and active engagement of groups and individuals coming from various sectors.
We welcome this kind of meeting of the minds, which is crucial most especially under these times of enormous challenges. Just the other day, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its newest report that shows that the global temperature is expected to reach or exceed 1.5 degrees of warming. This change in the climate is unprecedented and will likely cause grave consequences to each and everyone of us, disrupting lives, communities, and economies.
Protecting nature to stop the catastrophic consequences of climate change needs to be dealt with urgency and earnest collaboration of various sectors. In the past three webinar series, we had productive discussions on key ideas and experiences relating to the broad transitions to sustainable paths as laid out in the Dasgupta Review, a groundbreaking analysis on the Economics of Biodiversity led by Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta that prompted this webinar series. We even had the opportunity to listen to the highlights and recommendations of the report from no less than Professor Dasgupta himself in a fireside chat at the Climate Change and Biodiversity Webinar co-organized by the ACB and the UK COP26 Presidency.
A session on sustainable consumption and production highlighted the need for drastic and fundamental changes in the way people consume and produce in order to build resilience in times of crises. During the third session, it was made clear that for us to effectively and sustainably manage our wealth and natural resources, a holistic appreciation and accounting of the values of ecosystems and their services is imperative.
Today, in the fourth and final session, we will zero in on Transforming Budget and Financial Institutions, which have the power to influence businesses and other policy sectors. While the financial sector may not be directly dependent on biodiversity, they are vulnerable to risks related to the loss of biodiversity.
In today’s session we aim to hear from our panel of experts about existing work and sharing future plans on the economics of biodiversity.
Again, we have gathered highly esteemed experts to enrich today’s discussions on taking stock of the incremental progress we have achieved so far and paving the steps towards transforming the financial sector.
We are honoured to have Dr. Bruce J. Tolentino as our moderator for the panel discussions.
For the panel discussion, we have Dr. Andrew Seidl, Senior Technical Advisor of the Biodiversity Finance Initiative, United Nations Development Programme and Dr. Giovanni Ruta, Lead Economist of the World Bank to discuss the implications on Financial Institutions and Funding of Biodiversity Protection.
Meanwhile, in the Roundtable Discussion on Reflections of Country Financial Institutions, we will hear about the experiences of different ASEAN Member States. We have Dr. Bounleua Sinxayvoravong, Deputy Minister of Finance of Lao PDR and Ms. Dian Lestari, Director of Center for Climate Change Financing and Multilateral Policy.
A few weeks ago, the Convention on Biological Diversity released the first official draft of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework. The various discussions leading up to the framework’s finalisation create opportunities for parties and sectors, including the finance and economic ministries, to take part in its formulation. As the world discusses its goals and strategies to achieve a life in harmony with nature, financial institutions continue to play key roles, not only in steering the direction of economic growth, but more importantly in aligning financial flows to investment decisions that create positive impacts on nature.
It is in this vein that we have organised the webinar series on the economics of biodiversity––to provide a better understanding of the importance of integrating natural capital on how we do business both in the government and the private sectors. We embarked on this with the hope that as we strive for sustainable economic growth, we are able to ensure that we do not irreversibly destroy and deplete our natural wealth, which also holds the key to our health and well-being. These discussions become even more timely as governments in the ASEAN region grapple with the dilemma on how to boost the economy and support citizens trapped again in another series of lockdowns to contain surging infections brought by the COVID-19 variants.
Finally, the conversations we are hosting today aim to broaden the discussion on how we can transform budget and financial institutions to be more nature-sensitive and nature-positive, most especially in the formulation of national economic plans, budgets, policies, as well as the decision-making processes that impact our collective relationship with nature. Finance plays a crucial role in helping us shift. Governments, central banks, international financial institutions and private financial institutions all have a role to play in making the shift to a sustainable ecological system. It is our hope that the series of webinars on Biodiversity and Economics will promote an integrated way of thinking that will usher in a truly sustainable path towards recovery and a more resilient future for ASEAN.
You may view all the past three webinars, as well as the virtual fireside chat with Prof Dasgupta in ACB’s YouTube channel and FB page, the links of which will be posted in the chat box.
Thank you and we look forward to your active participation.
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