19 December 2007
Tonight: London Accord shows financial services industry ready
to take up baton on climate change
Today (Wednesday) – supported by Secretary of State John Hutton
MP – the the City of London Corporation, BP, Forum for the Future,
Gresham College and Z/Yen Group together unveil the full fruits of
a research project to put London at the leading edge of investment
research into climate change technologies.
Professor Michael Mainelli, co-founder of the London Accord,
said before tonight’s launch at the Mansion House, EC4: "Last week
in Bali, the Governments of the world promised to control emissions
under cap-and-trade regimes. Most economists agree that prices for
CO2 emissions will now rise above $35 per tonne. The London Accord
shows that the financial services industry was not just waiting to
be asked to provide solutions, it was ready well ahead of the game.
Commerce can save the planet and the London Accord publication
demonstrates that the financial services industry is prepared to
move now."
For more details on the London Accord, see
http://www.london-accord.co.uk/
City of London Lord Mayor David Lewis, Professor Mainelli, City
Policy Chairman (and co-founder of London Accord) Michael Snyder,
and leading City figure Giles Keating, of Credit Suisse, will also
speak at the event.
Sponsors of the London Accord, which follows from the City's
involvement in the Johannesburg Summit in 2002, are BP, the City of
London Corporation (the authority for the Square Mile business
district), Forum for the Future, Gresham College and Z/Yen Group.
Reuters, the London School of Economics (LSE), the Santa Fe
Institute are also behind the initiative and key City institutions
who invested research time include : ABN Amro, Canaccord Adams,
Credit Suisse, Societe Generale , Morgan Stanley, Bank Sarasin,
Barclays Capital, Cheuvreux, JPMorgan Chase, Merrill Lynch and
WestLB. Firms like Herbert Smith and Sustainable Forestry
Management also contributed, as did institutions like the Cambridge
Centre for Energy Studies, the NextEarth Foundation and River Path
Associates.
The LSE and the Santa Fe Institute has helped draw the threads
of the research together while buy-side firms such as USS, Insight,
and Legal & General helped to shape the project to ensure its
outcomes will be useful to investors. Observers from the EU, the
International Energy Agency, UNFCCC and others have been involved.
Project Director is Jan Peter Onstwedder, seconded from BP.
Ends
Notes
Media
For more information, Contact Greg Williams, 020 7332 1455 or 07889
167 205.
To contact London Accord Project Director Jan-Peter Onstwedder ring
0044 20 7948 5979
City of London Corporation
The City of London Corporation is committed to maintaining and
enhancing the status of the wealth and tax-generating business of
the City as the world's leading international financial and
business centre through its policies and services. Examples are the
extensive overseas business missions on behalf of UK-based
financial services and the wide-ranging economic development,
research and regeneration effort the City of London Corporation
undertakes across London. It also runs the City Office in Brussels
on behalf of the City and City Representations in Beijing, Shenzhen
and Shanghai - and a City Office in Mumbai. Although the City of
London Corporation provides local government services for the City,
the financial and commercial heart of Britain, its responsibilities
also extend far beyond the City boundaries and include management
of the Barbican Centre, Central Criminal Court at the Old Bailey,
Epping Forest, Hampstead Heath, three wholesale food markets, as
well as acting as the London Port Health Authority - and running
the Animal Reception Centre at Heathrow. Other work on climate
issues include a pioneering climate-change adaptation plan for the
Square Mile and a proposal to encourage all City firms to go carbon
neutral.
See also John Hutton MP, Secretary of State for Business,
Enterprise & Regulatory Reform, and his speech at UKTI's UK
Energy Technology Strategy, 17 December 2007.