“Embedding Space into Natural Capital Stewardship and the Global Carbon Markets” with Jacqueline McGlade (FLS, FRSA, Kenya)

Nature based solutions to climate change are taking shape all over the world. Coupled with the shift towards sustainable stewardship and the opening up of voluntary and regulated carbon markets worldwide, there is a need to establish consistent, scalable and accurate measures of change. Through the Sentinel missions we now have an extraordinary capacity to match in situ data on he environment with global information at time scales of 10 days and an acuity of 10m. This unprecedented opportunity is enabling investors to develop confidence in a wide variety of financial instruments that rely on the use of space. In this talk, the speaker will cover some of the crucial aspects of how this rapidly emerging market is a game changer for tackling climate as well as for social change amongst some of the poorest rural communities.

Jacqueline McGlade is Professor at the Strathmore University (Kenya), and Institute for Global Prosperity, UCL (UK), and co-founder of Downforce Technologies, a global start-up providing advanced analytics and digital twin of land for investment and net zero, nature based transitions. Previously UN Environment’s Chief Scientist, Executive Director of the European Environment Agency and Director of the UK Centre for Coastal and Marine Sciences. She served on ESA and UKSA Scientific Advisory Committees and has been deeply involved in Sentinel missions since their inception. Her current work is on climate adaptation and mitigation, in the Mau Mara in Kenya and the UK. She has > 200 publications, award winning films (Planet reThink, Netflix Our Great National Parks) and science awards – Knight of the Order of St James (Monaco); 2013 Global Citizen; 2017 Geospatial Ambassador; Il monitor del Giardino Award (Italy); Masaryk Gold Medal (Czech Republic); 1992 Minerva Prize (Germany); 1991 Jubileum Award (Sweden).

Webinar was recorded on June 16, 2022