Accelerating our Journey Towards a Green Economy, Before it’s Too Late

Executive summary

This event is inspired by the concerns expressed so well by Sir David Attenborough’s comments at the UN climate change conference, when he stated: 

“Right now, we are facing a man-made disaster of global scale, our greatest threat in thousands of years: climate change.

If we don’t take action, the collapse of our civilizations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon.”

The stakes really couldn’t be any higher and many people within the Transparency Task Force community are convinced the financial services sector as a whole could and should be doing much more than it is to tackle climate change. 

Of course, we are exposed to many grave challenges in the world right now. We are having to face up to serious political, social and economic challenges; none of them have easy solutions; and on top of that there is Covid-19. 

However, in the overall scheme of things, nothing; absolutely nothing is nearly as important as taking care of our planet.

Everything we have, everything we are and everything we might one day become is dependent on the wellbeing of a planet we are all fortunate enough to live on; a planet we are collectively harming; minute by minute.

According to many experts, we are getting perilously close to the point of no return; i.e. the point at which we become fated to harming our world so much that its wellbeing (and therefore ours) is irreconcilably jeopardised.

Any serious analysis of global warming results in one stark conclusion: unless mankind makes drastic changes to first halt and then reverse our awful impact on our precious planet, we are destined to climate catastrophe.

So, in plain and blunt English: unless there is a massive and authentic commitment to drastic change, we’re most probably going to wreck the one thing we simply must not take for granted; our world.

We don’t have a spare one; there isn’t a Planet B. 

The only possibility to reverse things is if all parts of the world economy in all parts of the world morph into a new, green form of themselves that isn’t toxic to the planet.

Unless we accelerate to a green economy before it’s too late then it will be…too late.

It isn’t rocket science. Sadly, it’s becoming blindingly obvious to everybody other than those in denial that we are messing up, big time.

Fortunately, in relative terms there aren’t that many people in denial; but unfortunately, they include the most powerful person in the world.

Every part of the world economy needs to adapt; and every part of the world’s economy has the potential to make a significant difference; none more so than the financial services sector.

There is no doubt that, despite its many shortcomings, the financial services sector can be enormously influential. The world’s capital markets have the potential to unlock the truly awesome power of money and use it to strategically overhaul the flows of capital. We need money to go where it can do real good, in the real economy; and to stop going to where it is doing harm. 

However, that’s going to take an enormous change to the way the world’s financial ecosystem works. We need to think about many things very differently.

The good news is that in the UK at least, all our financial services regulators are gearing up to play a part in driving the reforms necessary. But we can do more than just follow the direction given to us by the regulators.

We, the financial services industry as a whole, can share in the responsibility for leading the way.

At our symposium, we’ll be discussing and debating questions such as:

·       “What can we do to accelerate our journey towards a green economy, before it’s too late?”

·       “What role can the financial services sector play in helping to avoid climate catastrophe?

·       “In the long term, will Covid-19 be good or bad news for planet Earth?”

·       “How will the economic consequences of Covid-19 impact the sustainability agenda?”

·       “Are pension scheme trustees part of the solution or part of the problem?”

Clearly, there is going to be a great deal to discuss!

If you are on the same wavelength, please don’t ‘stand by’, please ‘stand up’ – we need all the help we can get to galvanise support for radical and rapid reform, before it is too late.