Council
30 October, 2024
Opportunities for positive climate outcomes
MORE than 70 stakeholders joined forces to identify nature and climate positive opportunities for the Corangamite region.
The Nature and Climate Positive Forum was co-hosted recently by Corangamite Catchment Management Authority (CMA) and the G21 Geelong Region Alliance.
The forum brought together leaders in natural resource management to explore strategic and policy drivers, and discuss opportunities for attracting nature and climate positive investment to the region.
The priority actions identified by participants on the day were to:
Develop a regional nature positive prospectus to attract new investment in nature;
Continue to build regional partnerships and share knowledge; and
Invest in regional data sharing and mapping of the region’s natural assets and current condition.
Corangamite CMA chief executive officer (CEO) Dr Amber Clarke said the Corangamite region is uniquely placed to play a key leadership role in delivering a climate and nature positive future.
“We can achieve this through catchment-scale demonstration projects that trial natural capital approaches and develop new environmental market opportunities for landholders, agencies and businesses,” she said.
Co-chair of the G21 Sustainability Pillar Nicole Sexton said a major economic transition to a net-zero and nature positive economy is already underway as an increasing number of companies understand the risks climate and nature dependencies pose to their business.
“We are striving to protect and enhance the beautiful natural environment that makes our region so special,” she said.
“With a lot of competition for traditional funding sources it is more critical than ever to plan for the future and harness new opportunities for attracting investment.”
Key speakers at the forum included Carl Obst, director at IDEEA Group, who gave an overview of natural capital accounting; and Professor Peter Macreadie from RMIT who discussed local opportunities in natural capital, blue and teal carbon, and environmental accounting.
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