London Climate Action Week 2020: Financing a green, fair and resilient Covid recovery.
After the success of London Climate Action Week Digital in July, we are delighted to be working with E3G again this November for LCAW 2020. Ahead of the event Rhian-Mari Thomas OBE, Chief Executive of the Green Finance Institute shares this guest blog on one of London Climate Action Week’s key themes: Financing a green, fair and resilient Covid recovery.
Dr Rhian-Mari Thomas OBE – Chief Executive, Green Finance Institute
As we look not only to avert the effects of climate change but rebuild a global economy crippled by the Covid-19 pandemic, there is an unprecedented opportunity to rebuild a greener, fairer and more resilient society for the future.
London Climate Action Week 2020 will be sure to highlight this opportunity, with “a green, fair and resilient recovery” featuring as one of four themes for the week-long event series. Completing the list of themes are: a roadmap to COP26, a sustainable and net-zero London and a whole of society mobilisation.
Dr Rhian-Mari Thomas, Chief Executive of the Green Finance Institute explores the green, fair and resilient recovery theme and why it is so crucial to enable green finance opportunities.
The role of the capital
Tackling the climate emergency requires collaboration and the sharing of knowledge, ideas and best practice on a city, national and international level.
London Climate Action Week is an important forum for bringing together organisations from across the capital’s major sectors, providing a platform for local initiatives to catalyse systemic change across London and beyond.
Why finance is so crucial
As a critical enabler across the UK economy and a leading industry in the city, finance is at the heart of the net zero transition and again this year it has a strong presence during LCAW.
Now more than ever, the finance sector is recognising the role it has to play in creating and mainstreaming the individual products, services and models which will form the pathway for London to move towards being a sustainable city, providing the channel for large sources of capital to invest in green activities.
By convening action-focussed, cross-sector coalitions, the Green Finance Institute is able to identify systemic barriers to accelerating investment into decarbonising our economy, and collaboratively develop solutions to help overcome these barriers. Through our Coalition for the Energy Efficiency of Buildings, we are actively delivering a portfolio of demonstration projects, the most advanced of which we look forward to discussing at our LCAW joint event with the NLA on 17 November.
Using LCAW to shed light on the sector
It’s great to see that London Climate Action Week has become a regular fixture on the capital’s calendar.
We are looking forward to a light being shone on some of the ways finance is helping shape the net zero transition across key sectors, and, particularly now, how it can lead the conversation around a green recovery that benefits people and planet. The digital nature of the Week this year will hopefully also widen its viewership, both to organisations and the citizens of London.
London Climate Action Week 2020 takes place from the 14th to 20th November 2020.
To find out more and see the full schedule of events, visit www.londonclimateactionweek.org, or join the debate by searching #LCAW2020 on Twitter and LinkedIn.
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