New York Climate Week wrap up!

New York Climate Week 2024 is over. It was dense and productive. It’s wrap up time. With pictures in the comments section!

First I was greeted in Newark with an aborted landing. Our pilot touched ground a bit too far on the runway, so we had to try one more time, which probably must have used several extra tons of kerosene. Not a great start for climate week.

I kicked off the week by co-moderating an MSCI Sustainability Institute roundtable with Linda-Eling Lee on Monday. As its name implies, "reality checking transition finance frameworks" generated a candid conversation amongst investors and regulators about net-zero commitments and approaches to transition finance. It appears that most financial institutions in the room do not believe they will achieve their near term climate targets, but are not backing down, either. We also discussed whether or not the juxtaposition of climate transition frameworks is a headache. You can find out more thanks to Brian Browdie 's comprehensive write up: https://lnkd.in/dPtWiNpe

Then I rushed to a closed doors ceremony to mark the official termination and disbanding of the FSB TCFD and its handing over to the ISSB. While this had been announced last year, the TCFD members and secretariat were yet to celebrate this properly. After all, this journey lasted almost ten years. The TCFD all-stars team was there: Mike Bloomberg , Mary Schapiro , Mark Carney , Christian Thimann , Curtis D. Ravenel as well as so many great members of the team and the secretariat - and of course Emmanuel Faber who compared our work to that of WW2 RAF pilots (wait, what?? explanations here: https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/sylvain-vanston-b609581_what-is-the-connection-between-winston-churchill-activity-7245621357114249216-WzpM?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop ). It was a great adventure and it could not have ended in a better place.

On Tuesday I attended a GFANZ Transition Finance workstream meeting at the Plaza Hotel (https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/gfanz_gfanz-ugcPost-7245451573311553540-cSwW?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop ). At last, an in-person meeting, expertly managed by Stephanie Chow-Ashton as well as Curtis D. Ravenel, Jourdin Thomas and David King . We published our main progress report that same day: https://lnkd.in/eW8mH3zj . Rather than expanding on theoretical considerations, it is filled with numerous case studies exploring how transition finance is deployed in practice. MSCI included two case studies thanks notably to Tanguy Séné 's work. A member suggested that a possible extra role for GFANZ could be to ensure that there is no further backtracking on commitments, while others mentioned that assessing transition plans is both an art and a science, which GFANZ could further clarify.

Then it was time to rush downstairs to attend the Bloomberg Global Business Forum. The GBF managed to combine numerous extremely senior speakers in short, lively and insightful panels on partnerships, net-zero, data and AI. I was particularly marked by the candid and humorous conversation between Ajay Banga, President of the World Bank, and Kristalina Georgieva, IMF Managing Director, moderated by Mark Carney. Then Jane Fonda stormed the stage to express her not-so-nice feelings about “f***ing fossil fuels” and had MUCH kinder words about Mike Bloomberg, her "favorite billionaire". Mike then introduced his special guest: President Joe Biden himself! The President discussed his climate leadership (https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/mikebloomberg_no-president-has-done-more-than-president-activity-7245112349597077504-DS61?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop ), including bringing the U.S. back into the Paris Agreement and passing the IRA, the largest climate change bill in history. The climate finance industry tends to complicate things a little (right?), and so it was great to see how Joe Biden focused on core values.

On Wednesday morning, MSCI hosted its flagship event (Key Takeaways from MSCI’s Climate Week NYC Conversation on the Low-Carbon Transition - MSCI) where we discussed the need for geospatial intelligence for climate physical risks and biodiversity, the shifting investment landscape of the energy transition, AI and private capital. MSCI speakers included Oliver Marchand , Laura Nishikawa , Naomi English and Puja Modi . I was also glad to visit our NY office for the first time. It sure has a better view than the Paris office, and it is a lot quieter too.

In the afternoon I participated in the SBTi FINZ (Financial Institutions Net Zero standard) workshop (SBTi Financial Institutions Net-Zero Standard Consultation Workshop - Climate Week NYC - Science Based Targets Initiative ), where we discussed the ongoing FINZ consultation and options. Sometimes I think Nate Aden has the most exposed and difficult job in the climate finance space. It’s so easy to disagree with the SBTi standards, but it’s a lot harder to develop much better compromises between so many contradictory forces: try combining simple and comprehensive, demanding yet achievable, customizable and standardized, stable and up to date with the latest practices.

Then it was time to share a few drinks with Jesica Andrews and the “Geneva Group” members who are conducting advanced work on alignment metrics and concepts.

The next day I traveled upstate to visit the Catskills, but that’s another story. I did notice many campaign signs on front yards, including some which appear to be promoting an orderly energy transition, which was heartwarming :-) (see picture in comments)