Washington, DC, USA

Developing an Infrastructure Fund for the Planet explored how ecosystem service payments and markets in carbon, water and biodiversity are quickly becoming a key solution to the urgent environmental problems of climate change, fresh water pollution, biodiversity loss, soil erosion, and destruction of our coastal and marine systems.

Moderated sessions among policy makers, major financial institutions, business leaders, the environmental community and indigenous groups from within the region and around the world discussed the current state of ecosystem markets and their many challenges, and pointed to some creative solutions. These discussions, in addition to breakout sessions, shed some light on bridging the gap between large-scale investment interest and local capacity for projects, the right balance between the marketplace and regulation, the role for land conversion and the ecosystem services in relation to escalating energy and food demand, and the gap between the beneficiaries of these services (often affluent urban dwellers and businesses) and the low-income rural producers.

The final panel session explored how to develop an infrastructure fund for the planet both metaphorically and concretely. How much investment will it take to protect the planet's natural infrastructure - our forests, our coral reefs, sea grasses and mangroves, our rivers and wetlands, our biological diversity? The nascent area of environmental investment has enormous scope, demonstrated by the 65 billion dollar, three-year young carbon market. But today these ecosystem services are dwarfed by capital flows into infrastructure and development, agribusiness and energy projects, all drawing down this natural capital. What are the emerging opportunities and pathways to channel much-needed investment into our natural infrastructure? How do we measure the risk of the low-income communities that will suffer disproportionately from the impacts of climate change? How do we measure the long-term profits of a healthier planet to society?

This meeting was Katoomba's first major public event in Washington, DC. Katoomba's goal is to create an ongoing effort to stimulate and nurture ecosystem market development, and to ensure that capacity is built so these new markets deliver real conservation outcomes and benefits to local communities and developing countries.