Following the Lord Mayor’s Coffee Colloquies in March and April, a final session in conjunction with The Royal Society took place on May 29th in the Mansion House. This took the overall theme of SDG 13 (climate change), taking a focus on Nature and the Economy.
The seminar was chaired by Professor Louise Heathwaite CBE. Louise is Distinguished Professor at Lancaster University and Executive Chair of the Natural Environment Research Council.
Her expert panel took the topic from different angles. Prof Peter Smith of Aberdeen University was concerned that so many of the global challenges are being dealt with well but entirely in silos and so likely to conflict or fail. The great UN agencies themselves did not interact sufficiently. An example is tree planting which is considered overall “good” allowing carbon storage and absorption of solar radiation but can affect ecosystems by taking too much water and reducing biodiversity. In a nutshell maybe localised tree planting will be better attuned and more useful. A more joined up approach would ensure a more holistic approach.
Sir Ian Boyd managed to provoke a question relating to St Augustine and the question of who owns nature – is it public or private? His overall point being that we need to stop liquidating nature.
Jo Paisley the President of the GARP Risk Institute raised the need to increase nature risk benchmarking. Climate risk is better advanced but nature needs to catch up. Surveys of the major firms show that they are not considering this at the right Board level or at all. Indeed, data was essential to help address these risk issues.
Claire Coustar of Deutsche Bank described how joining GFANZ following COP 26 had been a game changer for her bank’s attitude and engagement. She described the growing number of financial instruments that are being used to put funds into nature projects including debt for nature swaps that ensure countries are financially incentivised to improve nature outcomes by the international development banks.
Finally, Prof Christina Hicks of Lancaster University spoke about the justice and equity that should precede our treatment of nature. Taking an example of her work in Gambia where local fish supplies were being taken by international companies for fishmeal products. Their choice of fishmeal was to reduce reliance on carbon intensive cattle farming, but the unintended or unrealised implication was the reduction of local nutritious food supplies in a developing country.
Questions from the floor were insightful with over 50% coming from Livery Climate Action Group members. Martin Bigg, Master Water Conservator asked about how water can be valued and Peter Anderson, Fanmaker, followed up the issue of the ownership of nature.
The panel fielded these points well and reference was made to the implementation of the work of the Taskforce for Nature Related Financial Disclosure that was due to come about soon.
Louise summed up the event by say that science and finance need to keep talking and communication will ensure that silos are broken down. Priorities need to be identified and a mental shift made to consider what are the material risks.
A full audience kept the conversation going for a long time after over coffee.
Alderman Alison Gowman