23. Mansion House Discussion Group on COP26, November 3, 2021

On 3 November, Deputy Master Rob Casey and I joined a discussion group at Mansion House to hear and see the latest thinking from private finance at COP26, discuss emerging developments, and view a key Glasgow session of the Green Horizon Summit at COP26.


The discussion group was led by Alderman and Sheriff Alison Gowman, joined by Catherine McGuinness, Chair of Policy and Rhian-Mari Thomas, CEO of the Green Finance Institute, along with approximately 40 guests, many of whom were key members of the Livery Climate Action Group.

Together with the Green Finance Institute, the City Corporation is building on the success of last year’s Green Horizon Summit to provide the key forum for private finance at COP26, with an aim to both mobilise private finance for the transition to Net Zero and provide a platform for global Financial and Professional Services to showcase the important role they will play.

The link to the COP26 session included a wide-ranging discussion on key issues including the need for a clear trajectory on carbon pricing, tools to measure carbon footprint, standards on financing potential projects, better data for stress testing and ensuring public and private finance are subject to the same rules.

In our local discussion we raised the important role the City can play in the finance of the water sector, particularly in climate adaption to droughts and floods, not just the global threat to the poorest and potentially unstable areas of the planet, but also the threat the City itself may face from both flooding and drought, being situated in the highest water stressed region of the UK.

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