Beyond decarbonization: Scaling investment in natural capital and carbon removals
Much of the global economy depends on natural capital—the world’s stock of natural assets. Acting as the planet’s balance sheet, natural capital provides critical services and resilience, ranging from providing protective barriers for communities from storms and floods to absorbing CO2 and limiting the pace of climate change. As the global economy transitions to net zero, natural capital—and its conservation—has a significant role to play.
At this event, we convened thought leaders on topics including reforestation, carbon markets, and negative emissions to explore how we can better prioritize investment in natural capital solutions—and the technologies that can amplify them—in order to protect our planet and build economic resilience to accelerate our path to net zero.
Scaling up investments in natural capital
Preserving and regenerating natural capital is among the lowest-cost and most critical parts of our path to meet our global climate commitments. What would it take to significantly shift investment into natural climate solutions (NCS)? What role do businesses play in protecting nature? Moderator Gillian Pais, partner at McKinsey & Company, hosted this discussion featuring panelists:
- Bronson Griscom, Senior Director Natural Climate Solutions, Conservation International
- Kathleen McLaughlin, Executive Vice President & Chief Sustainability Officer, Walmart
- Eron Bloomgarden, Executive Director & Founder, Emergent
- Frances Seymour, Distinguished senior fellow, World Resources Institute
The Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets
How can voluntary carbon markets enable the global transition to a 1.5C pathway? What role does The Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon play in supporting scaling up high quality carbon credits? Moderator Christopher Blaufelder, partner at McKinsey & Company, hosted this discussion featuring panelists from the Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets (TSVCM):
- Sonja Gibbs, Operating Member, TSVCM; Managing Director and Head of Sustainable Finance, IIF
- Annette Nazareth, Operating Lead, TSVCM; former Commissioner, US Securities and Exchange Commission
- Bill Winters, Chair, TSVCM; Group CEO, Standard Chartered
Negative emissions: Leveraging nature and technology
Negative emissions are an important part of the puzzle as we work towards a 1.5°C pathway and prevent runaway climate change. In this session, panelists explained how we have negative emissions solutions that are ready to scale... yet we are far from a trajectory of investing and building the negative emissions infrastructure at a scale required to meet the climate need. How do we break down the barriers and unlock their potential? Moderator Emma Gibbs, partner at McKinsey & Company, hosted this discussion featuring panelists:
- Will Gardiner, CEO, Drax group
- Lori Guetre, VP & Head of Business Development, Carbon Engineering
- Jules Kortenhorst, CEO, Rocky Mountain Institute
Learn more on establishing net zero and ESG strategies.