The Asia LEDS Partnership, in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), through the Climate Economic Analysis for Development, Investment and Resilience (CEADIR) activity; and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), organized the workshop on March 29, 2017 in Bangkok, Thailand. This high-level meeting brought together nearly 90 executives from leading multinational and domestic corporations, financial institutions and investment firms, small and medium-sized enterprises, commercial commodity certification platforms, and senior government officials across Southeast Asia to align actions and accelerate investments into climate-smart agricultural and forestry value chains.
CONTEXT
Countries in Southeast Asia have made ambitious climate change commitments to enhance resilience and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the land-use sector. Global agribusiness leaders have also committed to significantly reduce emissions while working to meet growing demand for food and forestry products. To address investment opportunities and financing needs, leading banks and investors are beginning to develop “climate-smart” products and practices, aligned with business and sustainability goals.
WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES
- Providing public and private sector participants with a forum to learn what drives decisions, facilitate better communication and information exchange among diverse actors, and identify actions that align the priorities of the private sector, governments, and donors to accelerate investment for climate-smart commodity production;
- Encouraging private sector participants to invest in actions that reduce GHG emissions and can increase profitability while reducing business risks and adverse environmental and social impacts;
- Enabling governments and donors to identify priority needs and opportunities for directing investments and technical assistance to increase private sector investments and actions at scale for reducing GHG emissions in agriculture and forestry; and
- Creating a new network of private sector leaders as a foundation for future engagement by governments and donors, including USAID, FAO, Asia LEDS Partnership, and Tropical Forest Alliance 2020 (TFA 2020)
OUTCOMES
Public and private sector participants prioritized needed actions differently, however. Government officials emphasized the importance of more private sector input in developing policies, regulations, and support and in reviewing policy implementation outcomes. Private sector participants emphasized the importance of increasing the ability of small-scale producers to obtain financing for more sustainable practices. Donors placed a high priority on facilitating regular dialogues among stakeholders. Please find more information in the Event report and The high-level Summary of Recommendations.
