As the largest owners and stewards of capital, asset owners play a critical role to reach our 2050 net zero goals. As asset owners take long-term investment horizons, they are uniquely positioned to construct purpose-driven portfolios and can intentionally create positive environmental and societal impacts. Unlike shorter-term investors who primarily focus on immediate financial returns, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, insurers, and endowments, can better align their fiduciary duties to encompass long-term sustainability and societal impact, either through passive or active ownership in companies. Furthermore, there is a growing consensus among asset owners on the importance of adopting a multi-stakeholder approach to sustainable finance including active engagement with companies, regulators, and governments to achieve real-world net zero outcomes. This approach goes beyond regulatory compliance, emphasizing the need for genuine collaboration to drive sustainable practices.
The discussions will focus on fostering intergenerational leadership, bringing together a powerful platform of seasoned and emerging leaders in addressing the planet’s urgent challenges. The leaders will examine renewing commitments to planetary stewardship, climate equity, solidarity, and social cohesion. Leaders today and tomorrow will have to leverage foresight, science, capital, and courage to make decisions that bridge generational divides, prioritize social equity, and uphold environmental responsibility.
Bridge Builders today need to adopt new leadership skills like empathy, resilience, and adaptive thinking in younger leaders, while recognizing the wisdom and resilience of experienced leaders. We need to emphasize skill-building to navigate complex social challenges and enhance societal cohesion that fosters a renewed commitment to creating a fairer, healthier world in harmony with nature, planet, and people.
The finance industry is at the forefront of the transition to a low carbon, resource efficient and socially inclusive future. By encouraging the flow of capital towards the achievement of sustainability goals, it can create shared value, whilst balancing profits with long-term social and environmental benefits. By setting and implementing targets in areas including greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity and nature, sustainable consumption and production, and financial inclusion, financial institutions can drive ambition, tackle global challenges and set strategies and operations on a sustainable pathway for a more resilient future.
Opening remarks
Eric Usher, Head, UNEP FI
Patrick Odier, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Lombard Odier Group and Chair, Building Bridges
Accelerating systems change through finance
Rémy Rioux, CEO, French Development Agency (AFD)
Moderator: Nik Gowing, Founder and Co-Director, Thinking the Unthinkable
Wisdom from the Elders: The Right to a Resilient Future
Elisabeth Stern, Board Member, KlimaSeniorinnen
Mary Robinson, Chair, The Elders & former President of Ireland, & former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Moderator: Nik Gowing, Founder and Co-Director, Thinking the Unthinkable
Capitalising on timing of Biodiversity COP16 in Cali and climate COP29 in Baku.
Blended finance that mobilizes private investment has emerged as the critical strategy to address and overcome the investment gap for climate action, and more recently seen as a prospective solution for biodiversity restoration and nature-based solutions. The Climate Policy Initiative and other experts estimate annual climate investment needs to achieve the Paris Agreement in Developing Countries at $1.5-2 trillion, but actual investment happens at only 15-20% the level required.
Mobilization of private investment through blended finance, combining public and private sector funds, is crucial. Good practice blended finance can increase project viability, improve project-level investability and improve portfolio-level investability – creating debt and equity investments that meet the fiduciary and regulatory investment obligations of investors. It is critical for Developing Countries where 90% of countries are rated non-Investment Grade. The OECD and Convergence identify the amount of private investment mobilized for climate has been increasing, but far below amounts required. Blended finance has demonstrated mature solutions for climate mitigation projects with steady revenues (e.g., renewable energy generation), and is in the process of demonstrating success for climate adaptation, nature based solutions and biodiversity. Most experts agree mobilizing investment at scale and much faster pace is required to tackle the climate and nature crisis.
Join us for this webinar as we showcase existing solutions and discuss how to mobilize private investment at scale. The session will also demonstrate how blended finance can support COP29 objectives as governments are to set a new post-2025 finance goal to fund the (1) loss & damage fund, (2) scale climate finance to reach the 30% global renewables targets and (3) climate and nature technology transfer. We will also look at how private sector involvement is key to bringing innovation and efficiency gains to projects, making them more cost-effective.
We recommend these documents as background reading prior to the panel:
Global Landscape of Climate Finance 2024, Climate Policy Initiative, October 2024
State of Blended Finance Report 2024 – Climate Edition, Convergence, October 2024
Climate Finance Provided and Mobilised by Developed Countries in 2013-2022, OECD, May 2024
Learn more about the Sixteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 16) taking place in Cali, Colombia from October 21st – November 1st, 2024.
Learn more about the Twenty-ninth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 29) taking place in Baku, Azerbaijan from November 11th – November 22nd, 2024.
Half of the global population is now under 30, making the inclusion of the Next-Gen demographic in sustainability discussions critical. Trillions are shifting from Baby Boomers to younger generations over the next ten years which underscores the importance of a sustainability-focused approach to wealth management. Next-Gen investors, aged 20-50 from family businesses, are pivotal in values-based, purpose-driven investing. They hold significant assets and influence, driving sustainability, innovation, and capital preservation. They focus on global challenges and invest in sectors like cleantech, medtech, edtech, fintech, and social ventures. However, they face hurdles such as developing effective impact strategies, confidence gaps, limited decision-making power, and difficulty finding suitable investment opportunities. To support their leadership, sustainability policies must align with their aspirations and address these challenges, ensuring long-term, responsible investments for future generations.
Join us on October 10, 2024, from 16:00 to 17:00 CEST for our webinar “Impact Lens Investing – Grabbing the investor’s attention?”, which is the first of the “Constructing Change Webinars Series” in preparation for Building Bridges 2024. This session will explore how impact investments are increasingly drawing the attention of institutional investors and how capital is being deployed to address global challenges like sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, and circular economy initiatives.
The webinar will feature Jennifer Boscardin-Ching, who manages thematic equity strategies at Pictet Asset Management, aligning client investments with sustainability themes. Guillaume Chapuis of Banque Lombard Odier will share insights from his leadership in private equity investments focused on sustainability. Sandra Halilovic, Head of H2R Development Facility at Acumen, brings her expertise on reaching the world’s most underserved communities. Finally, Krisztina Tora, Chief Market Development Officer at GSG Impact will provide a global perspective on how the impact investment ecosystem is evolving to meet these challenges.
Moderated by Kostis Tselenis, Managing Partner of the Swiss Impact Office, this diverse panel exemplifies the value of the Building Bridges movement—bringing together diverse voices to address shared challenges in sustainability and discuss how we can collectively seize the growing opportunities within the $1 trillion impact investment market.
Register now and discover how Impact Lens Investing is paving the way for more inclusive, measurable social and environmental outcomes alongside strong financial returns.
Impact investing can be a driving force in bridging the UN SDG funding gap, but misperceptions of risk and liquidity challenges prevent it from reaching sufficient scale, especially in developing markets. This session aims to rally experts and key stakeholders to identify practical solutions for overcoming these critical barriers.
This interactive workshop will bring together TISFD’s Chairs and Founding Partners for a discussion on the proposed scope and approach of the Taskforce. The exchange will inform finalization of TISFD’s Extended Technical Recommendations – the blueprint for the Taskforce’s future action – to be published in February.
Explore real-world examples and strategies for advancing gender-smart finance. Join Sweef Capital, DFC, and financial institutions from Latin America, Asia, and Africa, for a dynamic discussion on how gender-smart technical assistance has yielded exciting results in promoting gender equality and financial inclusion through policy refinement, human capital development, and innovative financial products.