COP26: Carney hails $130tn for net zero climate commitment
UN climate envoy Mark Carney talked up the fact that as part of the Global Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), more than 450 companies from 45 counties are committed to managing their balance sheet totalling $130tn (£95tn) in line with net zero
“Make no mistake, the money is here, the world wants to use it,” the former Bank of England governor said at the COP26 summit in Glasgow, Scotland, on Wednesday.
GFANZ has an advisory panel of 20 independent experts and seven NGOs to guide and scrutinise its work, and the alliance will work closely with the official sector to build a global financial system focused on achieving net zero, said Carney
He added that the companies in the alliance will target their "fair share" of the 50% of greenhouse gas omission reduction by 2030 needed to keep the world on track to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius "using the most stringent science-based scenarios to set out detailed plans".
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Looking forward, he said a critical issue is to figure out how to use GFANZ's "enormous financial resources and relentless focus to unlock the $1tn of additional investment" needed for net zero transitions in emerging markets and developing economics.
He said doing so will require "a radical new approach to mobilise private finance at an unprecedented scale".
This includes catalytic initiatives from the private sector and expertise of organisations like the IMF.
Carney said that before the agreement made in Paris in 2015 to tackle climate change, most businesses considered it merely a CSR issue and "thought it was someone else's problem".
But now, he said "finance is no longer a mirror that reflects a world that’s not doing enough, it is becoming a window" though which ambitious action can deliver lofty goals.
"With GFANZ we have all the money needed for the transition, now our job is to have the plumbing needed to put it to work."
