This session was a collaborative partnership between Middlebury College and See Change Sessions, held at Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf Campus. A unique, immersive, and generative gathering designed to actually See Change. Get it?

Prepared & Facilitated by:

Julian Portilla, Ralph Chami, & Dinah Nieberg

LAB SESSION OVERVIEW

Changing the mindset and behaviors of individuals and the private sector from extractive to regenerative involves the recognition of the value of living nature and ecosystem functions. In particular, the pricing of the ecosystem services of a living nature, where possible, must be market based so that global markets can recognize the value of this new asset class. During the lab, participants shared a multitude of ideas and perspectives on various aspects of ecocentric financial reform. The discussions on the first day focused on several key areas:

Actors: Who benefits now and who would benefit from a change of this nature?

Systems drivers: Forces of change and resistance.

Messaging and communication: What do people need to hear and from whom?

Key institutions and policies: What would need to change or be established to promote change?

We need an eco-centric financial reform if we are to cool the earth, bring current atmospheric 422 CO2/ppm levels back to 350 ppm, and convert the current 80 fossil fuel / 20 renewable & nuclear energy mix to 20/80 by 2040. There is an opportunity to reframe value by introducing natural capital asset accounting (think natural carbon sinks such as rainforests, mangroves, etc.) and the valuation of ecosystem services on governmental or central bank balance sheets. Together we discussed ways to integrate some of the following into our financial architecture:

• How could the Wealth Accounting and the Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES), which is part of the broader World Bank umbrella initiative, the Global Program for Sustainability (GPS) be used to accelerate the process?
• How could the Task Force on Nature related Financial disclosures be used to accelerate this transition process?
• As part of this nature-centric transition, how could the World Bank be incited to complete the review of sustainable growth and comprehensive development indicators, such as the Human Development Index (HDI), Genuine Progress Indicators (GPI) and Thriving Places Index (TPI), away from the current Gross Development Product (GDP) income-based metric?

Participants considered why and how to integrate natural capital into the International Financial Architecture. By building a new economic paradigm that has nature and its stewards at its core, economic and financial policies would then, endogenously, deliver shared and sustainable economic prosperity. Participants sought to understand the actors, systems drivers, messages and messengers, key institutions and policies needed to make the vision of market valuation of natural assets a reality. They also envisioned the unintended consequences of success and designed ways to steer the change away from unintended consequences and towards a future characterized by equity and fairness.