Getting Finance to Net-Zero: Guidance by Practitioners, for Practitioners

Hear from members of the CFRF’s Transition to Net-Zero (TNZ) and Disclosure, Data and Metrics (DDM) Working Groups, as we review useful tools and resources that finance and risk professionals should be aware of, and take a closer look at the role of financial institutions in supporting the economy-wide transition.

In this extended webcast, we will discuss the most recent outputs from these working groups – written by practitioners for practitioners - including the following reports:

• A Carbon Budget Primer for Financial Institutions
• Managing Legal Risks from Disclosures
• Mobilizing Investment into Climate Solutions
• Climate Metrics Dashboard 

We will also have a deep dive on the roles of banks, insurers, and asset managers in mobilising investment into and financing climate solutions, and take a closer look at the state of transition planning in the industry.

Speakers

Jo Paisley

President, GARP Risk Institute (Moderator)

Billy Suid

Head of Climate Risk, Barclays

Billy is Head of Climate Risk for Barclays, a function created in 2020 to support Barclays’ ambition to become a net zero bank by 2050, helping to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy. He chairs the Transition to Net Zero working of the Climate Financial Risk Forum.

Billy is responsible for developing Barclays’ climate risk methodologies and managing climate risk in the bank’s portfolio. He also leads Barclays’ climate stress testing work. He has led the development of BlueTrack™, Barclays’ methodology for measuring financed carbon emissions and tracking them at a portfolio level against the goals of the Paris Agreement and the development of Barclays’ methodology to assess the risk of the low carbon transition on its corporate lending portfolio. He also sits on the investment committee of Barclays’ £500m Sustainable Impact Capital, which invests in environmentally focused early-stage companies.

Prior to his current role, Billy was Head of Capital and Leverage Management at Barclays, responsible for managing the bank’s capital position. He has had a long-standing interest in environmental issues and led the launch of the Barclays Green Bond issuance programme in 2017, a first amongst UK banks. Since joining Barclays in 2005, Billy has held a number of roles in Markets, Portfolio Management and in the Treasury function, initially as Head of Securitisation and Asset Backed issuance. He started his career at JPMorgan, is a CFA Charterholder and graduated from ESSEC Business School in Paris.

Christophe Williams

Co-founder and CEO, Naked Energy

Prior to founding Naked Energy, Christophe has been connected to the renewable energy industry for generations. His first inspiration was his grandfather Peter Williams who worked with renowned engineer Stephen Salter in the 1970s to develop 'the oscillating duck', a form of oscillating wave technology generating clean electricity. 

Christophe previously worked as a senior creative executive in the advertising industry for over fifteen years, gaining many awards from prestigious organisations such as ‘Creative Circle’ and ‘Clio’. He has worked with major blue-chip clients and global brands such as Microsoft, Barclays, BMW, Sony and also directly with a number of UK government bodies, including DEFRA and the Central Office of Information on high profile advertising campaigns on sustainability.

Alex Duncan

Chief Risk Officer, Just Group

Alex joined JUST in September 2012 as Group Chief Risk Officer. He is a fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries and has over 25 years of experience in the financial services industry covering many disciplines, including reinsurance, consulting, banking, and industry. Prior to joining JUST, Alex spent eight years at Old Mutual, where he held a number of positions, many involving mergers and acquisitions, and was most latterly Director of Finance – Capital, where he was responsible for capital management and treasury.

Chris Dodwell

Head of Policy and Advocacy, Impax Assessment Management

Chris Dodwell is Head of Policy and Advocacy at Impax Asset Management, a specialist investor focused on opportunities arising from the transition to a sustainable economy. Chris’s team is responsible for advising Impax’s investment teams on the impacts of public policy and leads the firm’s work to support the development of new policies to accelerate a net-zero, nature-positive transition. 

After qualifying as a solicitor at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Chris worked on climate policy for the UK Government for more than a decade, where he led the UK implementation of the European carbon trading system and the UK delegation to the international climate negotiations. Later, as Director of Climate Change at Ricardo Energy and Environment, Chris supported more than 15 countries in developing and implementing their national climate pledges under the Paris Agreement and was a key member of the team that founded the Climate Finance Accelerator, a UK Government-funded programme aimed at increasing flows of private investment into climate solutions in middle income countries. 

Chris has a BA Hons from the University of Cambridge and an LLM in Environmental Law from University College London. 

Matt Scott

Senior Director, Climate and Resilience Hub, Willis Towers Watson

Matt is a Senior Director in the Climate and Resilience Hub and leads on climate policy, financial regulation and green finance. He brings more than two decades of experience at the intersection of climate, finance and sustainable business. This includes working as a social entrepreneur to deliver solar lighting to off-grid villages in emerging markets, as an impact investor and leading on climate-related issues at the Bank of England and in UK Government.

While at the Bank of England, Matt led climate reviews of the UK insurance (2015) and banking sector (2018), helped to shape the international agenda and led the Bank’s Climate Hub under the sponsorship of Governor Mark Carney and Executive Director Sarah Breeden. In 2018 he was seconded to UK Government, where he led the development and launch of the UK's Green Finance Strategy, published in July 2019.