Completed Workstreams
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Sustainable Agriculture Finance Initiative
The Sustainable Agriculture Finance Initiative SAFI was established by The Aotearoa Circle in 2021 to accelerate further investment and support for sustainable agriculture in Aotearoa New Zealand.
The initiative was led by a Steering Group made up of major banks in Aotearoa New Zealand – ANZ, ASB, BNZ, Westpac, and Rabobank – along with the Ministry for Primary Industries, with secretariat services provided by EY.
The Steering Group worked to develop guidance for sustainable agriculture finance that takes note of emerging international frameworks as well as existing good farming practice standards used by Aotearoa New Zealand growers and farmers.
Read more about SAFI and download the Phase One Guidance Document here.
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August 2020
This report explores the financial gap favouring monoculture exotic forests over biodiverse native forests in New Zealand, and the incentives, policy settings and funding mechanisms required to ‘reset the balance’ by levelling the playing field for native forests.
Addressing biodiversity loss is a task too great for the public sector alone and the New Zealand private sector has an increasingly vested interest in actively contributing to the regeneration of native biodiversity. However, like many economic or cultural shifts Government intervention will be a key enabler of these efforts.
Through this report, the Aotearoa Circle hopes to spark much needed debate around the unique opportunity for the Government and New Zealand Inc. to jointly drive the regeneration of New Zealand’s biodiversity at scale, through the widespread establishment of biodiverse, permanent forest sinks.
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Climate-Related Scenarios for the 2050s: Exploring plausible futures for aquaculture and fisheries in New Zealand.
This report presents climate-related risk scenarios developed by KPMG with The Aotearoa Circle and its government, iwi, corporate, and civil society partners.
The scenarios in this report are intended to challenge conventional assumptions about New Zealand’s future and provide stakeholders with a means of stress-testing policy and investment decisions, as well as potential trade-offs associated with their decisions. During this process, decision-makers are expected to contest and/or embellish our scenarios in light of their unique perspectives on market behaviour, societal dynamics, and political response. This is both a foreseeable and welcome outcome.
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We launched Toitū Tahua, the Centre for Sustainable Finance, at the beginning of August to implement the Sustainable Finance Forum’s 2030 Roadmap for a sustainable financial system. The 2030 Roadmap for Action, is the final work product of Aotearoa New Zealand’s Sustainable Finance Forum (SFF). It represents the collective, voluntary efforts of more than 200 stakeholders including representatives from banks, insurance companies, industry, Māori businesses and Iwi, professional services, civil society, academia, and Government.
The name, Toitū Tahua, was chosen by Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei te reo and cultural experts. It underscores sustainability and protection of the environment, and acknowledges the importance of financial investment, new thinking and collective action required for a robust and resilient financial system and planet. The Centre for Sustainable Finance has set up a number of implementation groups to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Finance Forum's 2030 Roadmap for Action
Visit the Toitū Tahua: Centre For Sustainable Finance Website
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June 2020
The Fenwick Forum was initiated after Round 1 of Covid-19 lockdown, June 2020, with a focus on ensuring a balanced recovery that considers our natural capital.
The Fenwick Forum was named after the late Sir Rob Fenwick who co-founded The Aotearoa Circle. Sir Rob had a unique ability to not only ‘see the complexity’ associated with systems level change but also to ‘cut through the complexity’ and identify pragmatic actions that could move New Zealand forward in a way that supports a productive, sustainable and inclusive economy.
The Fenwick Forum brought together a wide range of participants to explore how Covid-19 recovery plans might support the transformation of New Zealand’s food systems, energy systems and transport systems.
The aim of the Forum was to identify a pragmatic set of actions to accelerate progress on a list of existing initiatives/ ideas. Whilst new initiatives and ideas are important, due to the time pressures to commence the next phase of our recovery, it was felt that an increased level of focus should be given to more mature initiatives as they have the potential to move quickly to implementation.