Charting A Roadmap towards Deep Decarbonisation: Aligning the Financial System with Net-Zero Emissions

Barbara Buchner (Climate Policy Initiative & SOAS), Stephany Griffith-Jones (Columbia University), Marianne Haahr (Green Digital Finance Alliance), Irene Monasterolo (EDHEC Business School), Nick Robins (LSE), Ulrich Volz (SOAS)

Organisers: German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE); Centre for Sustainable Finance, SOAS University of London; Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science

Finance is critical to achieving deep decarbonisation by 2050. Article 2.i.c of the 2015 Paris Agreement sets out the goal of “making finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development”. Across the financial system, banks and investors need not only to analyse and mitigate physical and transition risks, but they also need to align their portfolios with net-zero. Investment in and lending to carbon-intensive activities need to be rapidly phased out, while investment in new, low-carbon infrastructure – especially in the energy and transport sectors –, the retrofitting of the existing building stock, sustainable land use, and the development and deployment of low carbon technology needs to be scaled up. This will not happen by itself. Monetary and financial authorities need to set the framework conditions that will ensure that banks and financial markets integrate climate in all decision-making processes. Prudential supervisors should make net-zero a core element of supervisory practice at micro and macro levels, aligning supervisory expectations and prudential instruments with net-zero. Financial policymakers need to consider strategies for supporting a just transition to net-zero, harnessing the capacity of public as well as private financial institutions and of new financial technologies. Finally, policies need to be devised to scale up international climate finance to support adaptation and a just transition in developing and emerging economies.

Speakers
Barbara Buchner, Climate Policy Initiative
Stephany Griffith-Jones, Columbia University
Marianne Haahr, Green Digital Finance Alliance
Irene Monasterolo, EDHEC Business School and EDHEC-Risk Institute
Nick Robins, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change & the Environment, London School of Economics
Ulrich Volz, SOAS, University of London and DIE (moderator)

The event is public, but registration is required. Please register here.