We're nearing the third anniversary of an important @RockefellerFdn meeting on "The Future of Climate Finance" which I was lucky enough to convene at #RFBellagio. Well before #GFANZ was a thing, for better or worse, it's where the concept of "net zero-aligned finance" was born.🙄
Think back to June 2019, fully 6 months before Covid! The @IPCC_CH report on 1.5C had popularized science-based pathways to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. @UN Secretary-General @antonioguterres was planning a big conference on enhanced ambition... thehill.com/opinion/energy…
...But the idea of net zero-aligned finance was not yet a thing! Indeed, the hard work of translating science into actual net zero pathways in the real economy, across sectors like steel, cement, transport... even power generation... hadn't really happened yet! @sciencetargets 👀
Into this messy moment we lobbed the #netzero-aligned financial system concept.
Former Brazilian Finance Minister @jlevyoficial and former Swedish pension fund (AP4) chair Mats Andersson, both elder statesmen of #climatefinance, summarized in an op-ed: thehill.com/opinion/energy…
Looking back on it now... and reviewing my meeting notes... I'm actually shocked by how far we've come in realizing the vision (albeit still partial and preliminary) of net zero-aligned finance first mapped out just a few short years ago! But I'm also concerned...
While recent efforts like the UK’s @TPTaskforce are laudable, far too much public finance and public policy still runs at cross purposes with the path to net zero. That must change, beginning with the IFIs & DFIs whose mandates are most obviously aligned. e3g.org/news/hm-treasu…
And while much of the recent flowering of a climate-related fin reg agenda is seeking better data and disclosure on *climate risk* we’ve still got a long way to go in developing a whole-of-government approach to net zero alignment. To say nothing of defending rules in litigation!
Finally, it’s still far too common for asset owners, asset managers, banks and other biz to deploy some dedicated “green” or “low carbon” capital somewhere while financing fossil fuel expansion or other activity that’s clearly not net zero compatible. Sigh… much more work to do.
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