Inaugural Government Dialogue on Natural Capital hosted at World Forum

On the 27th November 2017, the inaugural Government Dialogue on Natural Capital was hosted by the World Forum on Natural Capital in Edinburgh. Representatives from 16 countries, the European Commission and a range of non-government organisations met to discuss governments’ role in creating an enabling environment for the natural capital agenda.

After an inspiring opening by Roseanna Cunningham MSP, Cabinet Secretary for the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform, Scottish Government, the participants joined a workshop discussion focused on the following main questions; where are you? where do you want to go? what do you want to do together?

From answering these questions, the participants identified three key areas in which intergovernmental collaboration will help to mainstream natural capital approaches. These are to:

1. Link national natural capital accounting with corporate natural capital assessments.
2. Increase collaboration by government agencies and businesses (both nationally and internationally) and use existing online platforms to share best practices.
3. Develop a positive natural capital narrative.

Due to the success of the meeting, it was agreed that the participants would convene again after one year and to start collaborating on the three issues identified.

Download the full summary report here or read it below.