Webinar: Climate and the City

On Tuesday 18 May at 4pm, the APPG on Sustainable Finance and E3G will host a discussion with some of parliament’s strongest climate champions and sustainable finance leaders to explore what the government needs to do to help build a robust Net Zero financial sector.

We’ll be joined by:

Alex Sobel MP, Vice-Chair of the APPG on Sustainable Finance and Chair of the Net Zero APPG
Bim Afolami MP, Bankers for Net Zero Champion (invited)
Steve Waygood, Chief Responsible Investment Officer at Aviva Investors
Meryam Omi, Head of Sustainability and Responsible Investment at Legal & General Investment Management
Nick Robins, Professor in Practice at LSE’s Grantham Institute
Catherine Howarth, Chief Executive at ShareAction (Chair)

Sign up here to join us on Tuesday 19 May, 4-5pm

Yesterday, the Queen set out the government’s priorities at the State Opening of Parliament – but will this legislative programme set the UK on the right track to meet Net Zero by 2050? While the speech reaffirmed the government’s commitment to being a world leader in climate action – details were noticeably absent, including on greening finance.

The City of London has the potential to be at the forefront of climate action. Yet one estimate of the FTSE 100’s carbon footprint suggests that its total emissions could be up to 15 times the domestic carbon footprint of the UK. Clearly, the time for Net Zero finance is now.

The sector is supportive of the transition to Net Zero, with many leading institutions including HSBC, Aviva, Barclays, Santander and Morgan Stanley announcing Net Zero targets. Firms responsible for over $70 trillion in Assets Under Management are now committed to the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, an alliance recently established which aims to mobilise the capital necessary to build a global zero emissions economy and deliver the goals of the Paris Agreement. In the UK, financial institutions responsible for over £4 trillion in assets directly called on the Prime Minister to develop a world-leading Net Zero financial system.

The Prime Minister shares this ambition – his ‘ten point plan’ for climate includes an objective for London to be the global centre of green finance. The Chancellor has also announced a number of measures that the government will introduce to support this objective, including mandatory disclosure in line with TCFD by 2025 and the creation of a UK Green Taxonomy.

However, by the government’s own admission, this ‘ten point plan’ is just a starting point. We must go further, faster to get on track to Net Zero. The opportunity for global green finance leadership is here for the taking, and the UK must seize it.

Our panellists will explore whether statements made both by policy makers and financial firms align with what’s actually needed to get finance to Net Zero. Do private finance Net Zero commitments go far enough and how can we ensure their integrity? What is the role of policy in getting finance to Net Zero? What policies are needed to make it easier for the financial sector to decarbonise? How can we build a broad and supportive coalition of parliamentarians to ensure that this is a top priority for ministers?

Join us next week for an event that is at the heart of the green finance conversation.

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