What Would A Sustainable Global Financial System Look Like?

It has been estimated that US$125 trillion of investment globally will be needed by 2050 to achieve 'net zero' greenhouse gas emissions by that date - to say nothing of the investments needed to tackle other ecological crises, or to provide the social investment needed for a just transition. 

But the current global financial system is not directing anywhere near enough capital to these ends. In fact, much of it is still flowing into fossil fuel production and other sectors that need to be radically downscaled. 

The challenges are structural: the risk-profiles, time horizons, and public good characteristics of much of the investment required to decarbonise the global economy pose challenges for our predominantly risk-averse, short-termist, private return-maximising financial sector. This suggests that the state will have to play a larger role as financier of the green transition, or that the institutions governing global private finance need fundamental reform - or, more likely, both. 

This event brings together some of Britain's leading thinkers on, and practitioners of, sustainable finance to discuss their vision for a genuinely sustainable global financial system - and what it would take to get there. 

 
Meet the speakers

Ann Pettifor  is a political economist, author and public speaker, and an expert on the global financial and economic system. She is the author of multiple books, including The Case for the Green New Deal (Verso, 2019). She co-founded the UK Green New Deal Group in 2008, which advocates practical plans for tackling the interlinked crises of inequality and climate breakdown. Ann is also Director of PRIME (Policy Research in Macroeconomics), a network of economists that promote Keynes’s monetary theory and policies, and that focus on the role of the finance sector in the economy. 

Dr Ellen Quigley  is a Principal Research Associate, the Co-Director of Finance for Environmental and Social Systemic Change, and the Special Adviser (Responsible Investment) to the Chief Financial Officer, all at the University of Cambridge. Her work centres on the mitigation of climate change and inequality through the investment policies and practices of institutional investors. Her article, "Universal Ownership in Practice: A Practical Investment Framework for Asset Owners", won the GRASFI Paper Prize for Potential Impact on Sustainable Finance Practices in 2020. 

Tom Tayler  is Head of Climate Finance at Aviva Investors, where he leads advocacy with policymakers and regulators on climate change and finance. He supports the work of Aviva Investors and the wider Aviva group on sustainable finance, with a particular focus on market and regulatory reform, including contributing to multiple UN, EU and UK sustainable finance initiatives. Tom is a qualified solicitor, and previously held various legal roles in the private and public sectors, including at Allen & Overy LLP and the Department of the Treasury Solicitor. 

Chair: Dr Fergus Green is a Lecturer in Political Theory & Public Policy in the UCL Department of Political Science. 

This event will be recorded and the video will be uploaded to our YouTube channel.

You can subscribe to our YouTube channel to be alerted when the recording is uploaded.

Accessibility
There is step free access into the lecture theatre
There are no designated spaces for wheelchair users within the lecture theatre
There is space for an assistance dog
There is not a hearing assistance system for the lecture theatre
There is not a visual fire alarm beacon in the lecture theatre
More info can be found here

Climate Politics Research Cluster

The Climate Politics research cluster aspires to be a world class centre for climate change and environmental politics research. We conduct timely, rigorous and independent research on political aspects of climate change and environmental issues at global, regional, national and subnational scales.