Hey everyone! Luke (CCO) here writing about New York Climate Week! Entering the third day here in New York, we started off listening to two juxtaposing sentiments – there are countless tech solutions available to public and private enterprises today, to get going with decarbonisation. This means focusing on the type of power you are using for your own operations and engaging with your suppliers to make the great switch to renewables. It was great to hear Barbara Humpton, CEO of Siemens US recall word for word the same dialogue around the convergence of the technological and the industrial revolutions, as she had outlined on stage, minutes later in the Nest’s garden eatery. Inspiring to see so many CxO of fortune 500 companies, followed by their entourage of colleagues.
The Nest is hosting about 8,000 attendees with the richest content outside of the Climate Hub, led by The Climate Group. This afternoon’s panel bringing two global sustainability titans (who just happen to be British, Steve Howard (Temasek, Vice Chairman for Sustainability), Colin Le Duc, (Founding partner at Generation Investment Management), alongside Jacomijn Vels (ING, Global Head of Sustainable Finance) to cover financing sustainability.
Clearly the capital deployed is working well, with burgeoning renewable energy and climate tech VC levels in the global north being where this is mostly concentrated. Though these exact solutions could be supporting non G7 countries, it’s clear the political motivation is currently not there, to take almost 200 trillion of pension fund money, to finance infrastructure, real estate, energy and wider sectors as finance vehicles for the global south. The volume of capital supporting those countries needs to radically change if we are to meet the clear decarbonisation target of 50% by 2030, and there are still no answers covering how.
Moving into the early afternoon, it’s inspiring to see the number of different entrepreneurs attending NYCW. The financial services panel closed with how this new attention of finding market based solutions for sustainability, is a positive sentiment of hope. Across the Nest, there are mostly established global businesses and technology providers, with sprinklings of those very entrepreneurial seed, post seed, series A-C CxO’s handing out their prospectuses, copy written books or manifestos on how their vision can solves the climate and sustainability crises.
The quality of senior profiles from all types of sectors does not go unnoticed, with former and current government ministers actively engaging with advocacy groups, enterprise and financial services.
Luke