Governing Finance for People and Planet

25 May 2023, 5:30 pm–7:00 pm

The UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP) invites you to the fourth talk of the IIPP 2023 Festival: The Entrepreneurial State 2.0. - Rethinking the State in the 21st century.

Event Information

Open to: All
Organiser: IIPP Communications

iippcomms@ucl.ac.uk

Watch the video here

Thursday 25 May 2023 | 17:30-19:00 (BST) UK Time

It's been fifteen years since the Great Financial Crisis of 2007-08, yet our financial system remains a barrier rather than enabler to thriving and sustainable economies.

Major banks continue to pump cash in to gas, oil and even coal-intensive projects and industrial activity whilst paying lip-service to net-zero carbon commitments. Capital markets have exploded in size but appear unable to provide the patient capital needed to support the structural transformation of the economy required to avert catastrophic environmental collapse.

This panel explored why post-crisis financial policy has failed to deliver a better financial system and how we can govern finance more effectively to meet global challenges, including climate change, biodiversity risks and economic development. In particular, we focused on the role of central banks and financial regulation and considered how they can better align financial flows with wider national and international goals. We also considered what types of new financial institutions are needed.

Meet the panel:
The talk was chaired by Dr Josh Ryan-Collins, Associate Professor in Economics and Finance at the UCL IIPP, in conversation with Anne Pettifor, Political Economist, Author and Debt Campaigner, Brett Christophers, Professor in the Institute for Housing and Urban Research at Uppsala University and Ingrid Holmes, Executive Director of the Green Finance Institute.

This event was part of the IIPP 2023 Festival: The Entrepreneurial State 2.0. - Rethinking the State in the 21st Century. #TheEntrepreneurialState2.0

About the Speakers

Ann Pettifor

Political Economist and Author

Ann Pettifor is best known for her prediction of the Great Financial Crisis in The Coming First World Debt Crisis (Palgrave 2006). In 2003 she edited the New Economics Foundation’s Real World Economic Outlook (Palgrave) and in 2008 co-authored The Green New Deal. In 2017 Verso published The Production of Money on the nature of money, debt and the finance sector.

In 2018 the Heinrich Boll Foundation and the City of Bremen awarded Ann the Hannah Ahrendt Prize. She is a Fellow of the New Economics Foundation, a Council member of the Progressive Economy Forum and director of PRIME economics – a network of Keynesian macroeconomists. Ann has an honorary doctorate from the University of Newcastle for her work leading an international movement for the cancellation of $150bn of debt owed by 35 low income countries, Jubilee 2000.

More about Ann Pettifor

Brett Christophers

Professor in the Institute for Housing and Urban Research at Uppsala University

Brett Christophers is Professor in the Institute for Housing and Urban Research at Uppsala University, Sweden. A political economist and economic geographer, he is the author or co-author of five previous books, including “Banking across boundaries: placing finance in capitalism”, “The New Enclosure: the appropriation of public land in neoliberal Britain” – winner of the Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Memorial prize - and “Rentier Capitalism”. His most recent book – “Our lives in their portfolios: why asset managers own the world” (Verso) – explores the rise of asset managers as increasingly important owners and sellers of everyday infrastructure, including housing, farmland and energy, water and healthcare systems. He is the author of over 100 peer reviewed journal articles on topics ranging across economic geography, political economy, finance and housing and is an Editor of the leading political economy journal Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space. More about Brett Christophers

Ingrid Holmes

Executive Director at The Green Finance Institute

Ingrid Holmes is the Executive Director of the Green Finance Institute. Ingrid was previously a Director and Head of Policy and Advocacy at Federated Hermes International. She was also the firm’s climate change coordinator. She has over 15 years of experience working on environmental policy and sustainable finance issues. Prior to joining Hermes Ingrid was a Director at climate change think tank E3G, leading a range of global initiatives on sustainable and inclusive finance. She has also held positions at the low carbon asset manager Climate Change Capital; been an energy and environment adviser in the UK Parliament; and adviser at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Prior to that she had a career in science publishing and journalism.

Ingrid has held a number of UK and EU advisory roles including Member of the UK Green Finance Initiative (2016/2018), Member of the European Commission’s High Level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance (2017/2018) and ran the Secretariat for the Green Finance Taskforce (2017/2018). During the period 2019/2021 she was Vice Chair of the Disclosures Working Group within the UK Prudential Regulation Authority/Financial Conduct Authority Climate Financial Risk Forum and Co-Chair of the Investment Association’s Climate Change Working Group. She is currently a Member of the Lloyd’s ESG Advisory Group, acting as an independent expert on climate change.

Ingrid has a BSc in Biological Sciences (Hons Zoology) from the University of Edinburgh and an MSc/DIC in Environmental Technology from Imperial College London. Her BSc thesis was published in Genetical Research (Cambs) and she was awarded the Kathleen Lacy Prize for ranking first in her MSc specialism (Pollution Management).

Joshua Ryan-Collins

Associate Professor in Economics and Finance at UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose

Josh has been at UCL since 2017 and has been Head of Research for IIPP and is currently Departmental Graduate Tutor (Director of the PhD program). He is a council member of the Progressive Economy Forum, a think tank of made up of eminent economists advocating for improved macroeconomic policy in the UK. Previously Josh was a Senior Economist and Head of the Finance program with the New Economics Foundation (NEF), one of the UK’s leading progressive think tanks. He was also a founding member of the Brixton Pound local currency.

Josh has a Ph.D. in finance and economics from the University of Southampton Business School, a MA in Industrial relations from Warwick University Business School and a BA in Sociology, also from Warwick. More about Joshua Ryan-Collins