Hiro Mizuno, Sony Kapoor, and Catherine Howarth form part of stellar line up for the first net Zero Festival event of the year
BusinessGreen has today announced the full speaker line up for Net Zero Finance on March 16th, the first event in this year's Net Zero Festival Programme.
The day will kick off with an exclusive conversation with Hiro Mizuno, Special Envoy on Innovative Finance and Sustainable Investments at the UN and one of Japan's foremost financiers having led the country's $1.5tr Government Pension Investment Fund. He has enjoyed an extensive career in banking and private equity having worked in London, Silicon Valley, New York, and Tokyo, and alongside his role with the UN he is currently an independent director at Tesla.
Mizuno will speak with BusinessGreen editor James Murray about the urgent need to make finance fit for net zero purpose as the transition to a clean and sustainable economy gathers pace.
The conversation will mark the start of a day long virtual summit delivered with support from commercial partner Schroders, as well as influential industry bodies such as the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC), Climate Bonds Initiative, and ShareAction. The broadcast event will feature a series of keynote speeches, panel debates, and streamed workshops covering every aspect of how the global financial industry is engaging with the net zero transition.
Confirmed speakers include COP26 high level climate action champion Nigel Topping, CDP CEO, Paul Simpson, ShareAction CEO Catherine Howarth, Triodos CEO Bevis Watts, and Schroders' Carolina Minio Paluello.
Over 50 expert speakers from across the sector will explore a raft of issues ranging from a broad assessment of the era-shaping technological and political trends shaping net zero investments to detailed discussions of climate risk disclosure reporting guidelines and growing demand for environmental, social, governance funds.
The day will close with a keynote from one of the world's leading experts on sustainable finance, Sony Kapoor. A Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics and former Chair of the Banking Stakeholder Group of the European Banking Authority, as well as advisor to many governments and development NGOs around the world, Kapoor will offer his perspective on how the net zero transition has become a corporate race for survival.
"We're delighted to be joined by such an expert and influential line up of speakers to discuss this most vital of topics," said BusinessGreen editor-in-chief James Murray. "Barely a day passes without leading financial companies announcing their support for the net zero transition, but this event will explore what that means in practice, what barriers need to be overcome, and how investors and corporates can work together to accelerate progress."
Readers can apply now for a ticket to Net Zero Finance and gain exclusive access to all of the sessions on the day and on demand, as well as the event's online networking space. A handful of free passes remain available for business executives, policymakers, financiers, and campaigners.
Net Zero Finance marks the first event in this year's Net Zero Festival and will be followed this summer by a series of one-day summits exploring Net Zero Nature, Net Zero Innovate, and Net Zero Culture. The 'pathway' conferences will support the second annual Net Zero Festival, which will take place over three days from September 29th and deliver the world's leading net zero focused event in the run up to the crucial COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow in November.
The Festival will provide a unique platform to showcase the most inspiring net zero projects and strategies from around the world while exploring how business leaders, financiers, and policymakers can work together to drive the fastest and most important industrial revolution in history.
More details on the full programme will be announced next month and readers can register their interest in the Net Zero Festival through the event website.
