And so they came from all around the world to Glasgow for COP26; the roads were closed, the locals stayed out of the away, it was unseasonably warm, we protested in the streets and there was a lot of “Blah, Blah, Blah”………….. but what does it mean for you and how your money might be used for a brighter future?
My engagement with COP26 was brief but I thought it worth sharing a few insights from my visits to Glasgow – one of which was very corporate and the other more personal. My biggest surprise was the amount of ‘official sponsors’ – even Irn Bru got in on the act and snared an endorsement from AOC. Perhaps I was a bit naïve about this, perhaps it was because this was an event run by the Tory party – but big business was there in strength – as were 503 lobbyists from the fossil fuel industry. Cynical and late in the day as it may be (and some are still resisting) big business now gets Climate Change – at least as a business opportunity, if not the catastrophe waiting to happen, that it is.
While it is tempting to crank up the greenwash monitor and question the motives, the engagement of big business is an important driver for change. I attended an interesting event during COP, hosted by Hermes, at which Dr Tim Lenton spoke of positive tipping points. In a fascinating talk which ranged from the effect of the Suffragettes, through the impact of ‘80’s pop group A-ha on the Norwegian adoption of elective vehicles (yes, it is true – click the link) to the rapid decline in the cost of production of solar panels in the mid 2000’s – he illustrated how momentum is needed from positive feedback loops to move economic systems from their current steady state to a new one of change.
One of the themes of COP26 was the role of private capital – that’s the money that you and I have tied up in investments and pension funds. The UN realised this some time ago. The UN Sustainable Development Goals are mainly a set of targets and objectives for global governments; but the underlying narrative is that governments can’t do it alone and they need to engage private capital investment. 40 years of neo-liberalism and pressure for low taxation have diminished government spending power. As Boris Johnson said in his welcoming speech “ …we cannot and will not succeed by government spending alone. We in this room could deploy hundreds of billions, no question. But the market has hundreds of trillions and the task now is to work together to help our friends to decarbonise…”.
You may have followed our 12 days of COP. Each day had a theme and the first Wednesday was Finance day. It is encouraging to see the growth of interest in investing in strategies that might help to mitigate climate change. These range from a lighter touch ‘ESG’ approach to highly focused intervention investing in new technologies and infrastructure with direct, positive contributions towards a net zero future. Whilst it brought derision from Greta Thunberg about more blah, blah, blah; it is still encouraging that Mark Carney's announcement of the GFANZ (Glasgow Financial Alliance for Next Zero) happened at all. This global coalition of leading financial institutions recognises the influence that financial institutions, in particular banking and insurance, can have on influencing investment and corporate behaviours and have committed to accelerating the decarbonisation of the economy.
Many of the financial presentations were large companies doing a bit of catch up - demonstrating they get it now. They still have a long way to go and need to show it’s not just rhetoric. If you are an Ethical Futures investor, you are in the vanguard and are already investing in funds that have long identified the need to invest for a better future.
And that I suppose brings me to the other side of my COP26 experience. On 6th November on a driech day I joined with over 100,000 others of all ages, from all walks of life and interest groups to peacefully march (behind a great Scottish Samba Band) through the streets of Glasgow, to voice our demands for climate action. These numbers keep on growing, Climate Change even made it onto The One Show. My neighbours recently stopped by in the garden to have a chat about actions they were thinking about to make their house more energy efficient and how to combat climate change. We need to keep on having dialogues with our friends and neighbours and making a noise and shouting louder than those lobbyists, so that our politicians and those who look after our money, work harder and go further, faster to make a change.
Julian Parrott
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