Ethical Finance 2021 | Day 3 | Beyond Climate | Round-Up
We hope you were able to join us for the final day of Ethical Finance as planned. We brought this year’s summit to a close with a truly incredible range of speakers and panels, who allowed us to successfully move ‘Beyond Climate’ to the leadership challenges and the ‘S’ in ESGs. The need to implement purpose-lead business models and to apply a macro-economic approach to questions of the fight against climate change came to the forefront of discussions across our illustrious range of speakers and varied panel sessions. With social inequalities thrown into stark relief by the ongoing effects of the coronavirus pandemic, aligning profit with societal and global purpose shone through as a key imperative facing the finance sector as the eyes of the world turn towards COP26.
The day began with a welcome from Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, before an interview with UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner by the Scottish Government’s Kat Feldinger. Dora Benedeck and Alexander Ferendec Tieman from International Monetary Fund gave a post-pandemic assessment of the SDGs, assessing how developing countries can finance the SDGs in the wake of COVID-19. A panel session followed with George LittleJohn in conversation with Arshad Mohammed Ismail, Bank Pembangunan, Sarah Norris, Aberdeen Standard Investments, Dr. Hayat Sindi, Islamic Development Bank and Abubaker Suleiman, Sterling Finance discuss financing of the SDGs from a range of perspectives around the world. A session on The UKIFC Global Islamic Finance & the SDGs Taskforce brought together John Glen, Sultan Choudary UKIFC, Stella Cox CBE to launch the UKIFC's new PRB report, setting a case for the role faith finance can play in delivering ESG goals. Read more here.
The next session covered social issues - the S in ESG - and began with a keynote from HE Dr Reza Baqir, governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, who described how the role of central banks has shifted through the Global Financial Crises to the pandemic. Next, a panel saw Thom Kenrick of NatWest in conversation with Andrew Cave of Bailliee Gifford, Elena Espinoza of the PRI, Leslie Swynghedauw of MSCI and Lesley-Ann Vaughan of Mojaloop Foundation. The panel discussion some of the challenges around social finance, with insights including how MSCI use nutritional data to better understand food companies' health impacts. The session concluded with a spotlight on Tobacco Free Portfolios with GEFI’s own Gail Hurley, Dr. Bronwyn King, CEO of Tobacco Free Portfolios and Ruben Zandvliet from ABN AMRO.
The final session of the day, and of Ethical Finance 2021 saw a series of keynotes around leadership. In one of the most unique presentations we have ever had at our Ethical Finance Summit, Louai Al Roumani taught us the lessons he learned from leading BANQUE BEMO SAUDI FRANSI through the Syrian Civil War. You can find his book, Lessons from a Warzone, here. We shifted our focus to a different type of purpose-led leadership which saw Farmida Bi interviewing Sir Howard Davies, Chair of NatWest Group about the development and implementation of the bank's purpose-led strategy. Our Fireside Chat: Steering a path to Net Zero was moderated by GEFI’s own Allan Watt, and drew on the extensive expertise of Keith Anderson from Scottish Power and Vivenne Yeda Apopo from the East African Development Bank and Kenya Power. Dr. Rhian Mari Thomas OBE lead our penultimate session, a conversation with Lord Mayor of London, William Russel, before George Hay of Reuters Breakingviews interviewed UN Special Envoy on Sustainable Investment and Innovative Finance Hiro Mizuno. Click here to watch the session, which covers the GPIF sustainable finance journey, the importance of governance and whether short-selling can ever be ethical.
With the Summit done for this year, our commitment to financing a sustainable future sees us turn our attention now to COP26 in Glasgow, which is just months away. We are committed to continuing the valuable conversations from Ethical Finance 2021, and encourage you to be part of this conversation at Path to Cop, to follow us @Finance4Change on Twitter and at on Linkedln to be part of this exciting next stage of the journey.
Ethical Finance 2021 | Day 2 | Sustainability | Round-Up
Day 2 of Ethical Finance 2021 was a jam-packed day of fascinating exchanges, unpicking the complex challenges of delivering Net Zero and the macro-economic factors underpinning them. Our sessions and speakers all pointed towards the need to shift global focus to issues of sustainability, prevent further nature loss and make a business case of biodiversity preservation. Together, they have layed the ground for our focus on Day 3 of our Ethical Finance Summit: How to move beyond climate to achieve long-term, sustainable solutions in finance and beyond ahead of COP26.
We started off with Kirsty Britz Director of Sustainable Banking at NatWest Group, highlighting how the #EthicalFinance2021 is an opportunity for NatWest Group and others to learn collaboratively. Next, Inger Andersen, Executive Director at United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), outlined her four-step action plans for financiers (watch now). Dr Werner Hoyer, President of European Investment Bank (EIB), then outlined the daunting set of challenges we face globally from the COVID-19 pandemic to the climate crisis, emphasising that this is our last chance to make real change. Bill Winters, CEO of Standard Chartered Bank launched a new Carbon Dated report looking at the impact of MNCs’ #netzero intentions on suppliers in Asia, Africa and Middle East - read it now at sc.com/carbon-dated.
We then moved on to our 'Global Trends in Sustainability' Panel with Dame Susan Rice from FSCB, Tan Sri Dato’Zeti Aziz, former Governor of Bank Negara Malaysia and Katie Murray, Group Chief Financial Officer at NatWest Group, who unpicked some of the challenges around sustainability finance globally. Our last session of the morning saw Dr. Sarah Ivory from University of Edinburgh Business School in conversation with Steve Waygood, Chief Responsible Investment Officer at Aviva Investors, spotlight the International Platform for Climate Finance (IPCF), and its work building consensus ahead of COP26.
To kick off our Net Zero session, Kaisie Rayner FRSA Rayner, Climate Change Lead at Royal London interviewed Manuel Pulgar-Vidal Global Energy and Climate Practice Lead at WWF and former COP President, who advised Alok Sharma to "be the DJ", mixing all the avenues for climate action together to create the right sound! Our approaches to 'Delivering Net Zero in Banking and Investment' Panel discussion was lead by David Pitt-Watson, Visiting Fellow at Cambridge Judge Business School. He challenged Deirdre Michie OBE, CEO at OGUK, Masja Zandbergen-Albers , Head of Sustainability Integration at Robeco, Kaitlin Crouch-Hess, Sustainability Manager at ING and Joanne Manda, Regional Advisor, Climate Change and Innovative Finance at UNDP Indonesia on greenwashing, practical tools for Net Zero, the role of the fossil fuel sector, transparency, and the responsibilities of the financial sector. Our Initiative Spotlight profiled the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC). Clare Foster, Head of Clean Energy and Green Recovery Lead at Shepherd and Wedderburn was joined by Daisy Streatfeild, Investor Practices Programme Director at the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) and Dewi Dylander, Deputy Executive Director at PKA, who outlined how the framework grew from a small group of investors interested in the Paris Agreement, to a vital tool in assessing investment portfolio alignment to science-based targets.
Our Nature session opened with Greg Ritchie in conversation with Prof. Partha Dasgupta, author of the review into the Economics of Biodiversity, who called for a 'World Bank for Biodiversity' (read more in Bloomberg or watch now). Our last session panel saw Andrew Mitchell from Global Canopy bring together Antoine Sire from BNP Paribas, Charlotte Kaiser from NatureVest, Madeleine Ronquest from First Rand and Reza Marvasti from ISS ESG, for a lively panel exploring the routes to practical action on biodiversity from a range of viewpoints. The day closed with and initiative spotlight lead by Natalie Jackson, which highlighted the work of TFND, which launches tomorrow, drawing on the expertise of Elizabeth Mrema from UN Biodiversity and Mikkel Larsen from DBS Bank.
Tomorrow, we will be looking ‘Beyond Climate’ which will be opened by The Scottish Government First Minister herself Nicola Sturgeon at 09.20 BST.
Remember to sign in using our EfX Global login: https://www.efx.global/ethical-finance-2021-sign-in/
You can find more ore information about all of sessions and speakers at ethicalfinancesummit.com