For the last 3 years the City of London Corporation has hosted the Net Zero Delivery Summit. It sits midway in the annual COP cycle and so serves to take stock on outcomes from the last COP meeting and looks forward to the next. Senior voices across the sector speak and an equally engaged audience share views. The Summit is available to watch now on demand. NZDS 2025 | On demand
This year Dr David Bogle, Court Assistant of the Worshipful Company of Engineers, attended and provides this personal perspective on the event.
“I came to this event as an engineer seeing finance as critical to enabling engineers to develop the systems needed to tackle climate change. I was pleased to hear about the priority that the City puts on sustainable finance and its role as a global leader.
There were certainly encouraging signs that the industries strong in the City – banking, insurance and shipping – are committed to the Net Zero challenge. Many schemes have been put in place, transition finance and carbon markets for example, but we heard that they are not yet working well in the developed world and also do not help the challenging issues in the developing world. There was a clear message that we need to do this in a more cooperative way but not yet clear that this message is getting through.
I was impressed that the session on climate and nature emphasised that these need to be seen together. There are financial and health benefits to this. We engineers emphasize the need for systems thinking to get the best across all aspects and avoid silo thinking which always leads to suboptimal solutions.
The discussion about carbon trading left me with the feeling that the heavy reliance on voluntary commitment is not reliable. The system isn’t working yet but it needs to in order to make sure that all countries, whatever their stage of development, can contribute.
I did feel that the voice of engineering needs to be heard more strongly. Much of the finance is to support engineering projects but engineers need to be heard to ensure that the investment is technically wise for the long term and within the whole ecosystem. I’m sure engineers are consulted on the detail but need to be part of the discussions early to ensure that the best projects – in terms of financial, technical and environmental sustainability – are taken forward. This was particularly brought home to me when the response to my question on concern about the exponential increase in the energy needs for AI was met with the response that there were major efforts to scale up – including nuclear provision. However this misses the point that the need is now and new nuclear build takes decades to come on stream. We need smarter use of AI and to discourage its blind use everywhere which seems to be the fashion.
It’s good to see the commitment and efforts but there is still a long way to go. Finance is critical but is just the start for making net zero happen.”
David Bogle, Court Assistant, the Worshipful Company of Engineers
Past President of the Institution of Chemical Engineers