Finance’s Largest Net-Zero Club Needs New Talking Points for COP
The world’s biggest financial coalition for eliminating carbon emissions may find it difficult to get their message heard at November’s climate talks in Egypt.
A couple walk along a road at the Giza pyramids necropolis on the southwestern outskirts of the Egyptian capital Cairo.
Photographer: Mohamed El-Shahed/AFP/Getty Images
“Net zero” was virtually the only talking point when finance luminaries gathered at the United Nations climate conference in Glasgow last year. Rishi Sunak, then UK chancellor and now prime minister, spent finance day at COP26 speaking of the need to create a net-zero-aligned financial center. Mark Carney, former Bank of England governor, announced finance firms with $130 trillion of assets were committed to net-zero financed emissions. And European Central Bank executive board member Frank Elderson said central banks were prepared to support the transition to net zero.
At COP27, which kicks off next week in Sharm El-Sheikh, the conversation will need to be broader. That’s because bankers bringing a net-zero message to Africa risk sounding as out of place as the wail of bagpipes in an Egyptian souq.
Egypt and the broader African continent have contributed just a fraction to global greenhouse gas emissions, and yet will be among the most vulnerable countries to climate disasters. As such, a key focus of COP27 will be getting rich countries that have done the most to warm the world to commit more funding to help developing nations adapt, with discussion expected to touch on compensation for climate damages.