Money: not much, but now

When those working for voluntary associations get together and talk about our financial situation, we often refer to the saying: “Please don’t make jokes on my account, put some money into it instead.“

The phrase came to our minds when we saw the programme for the meeting that will be held on 30 March 2020 at the headquarters of the World Bank in Washington. Organized by the WB itself along with CGIAR, CCAFS, The Nature Conservancy and above all the 4 per 1000 Initiative, the conference has a challenging title: “Enhancing investment in soil health and carbon storage: Frontiers for linking finance and carbon accounting“.

The 4per1000 Initiative has been promoting a global partnership intended to facilitate efforts across multiple stakeholders to promote action at all levels to increase soil carbon stocks globally. A large gap remains between the potential of soil carbon sequestration and the implementation of practices on the ground. Many organizations are now asking how to best support implementation of those practices. One major constraint is the need of consistent and comparable methods for measuring, reporting and verifying changes in soil carbon stocks.

The purpose of this workshop is to support investment-oriented actions promoting soil health and carbon storage in the soil.  Thus, the final aim is to identify opportunities for action linking technical practices, finance, and policy for accurate and cost-efficient measuring, reporting and verifying systems for soil carbon storage. The workshop will also examine how these improved systems can support the three priority lines for action to promote scaling up of investment in soil health and carbon storage: policy, business development and value for farmers.

We will try to follow the debate that takes place at this meeting, in which representatives of national and international financial organizations and executive agencies will take part. On its success will depend new actions and impetus for the whole area of the soil and carbon storage.

In the meantime, we are reminded again of the phrase “Please don’t make jokes on my account, put some money into it instead.“

Pubblicità