Brussels was the venue. A few hardy individuals from Z/Yen braved the rigours of the Eurotunnel to sample all that Brussels had to offer – and to launch the first Global Green Finance Index (GGFI 1) - on 14 March. We were in Brussels to join our partners, Finance Watch, who are based in the city and, tearing ourselves away from thoughts of food and Belgian beer, we gathered with a group of people passionate about green finance to reveal the results.

The GGFI is sponsored by the MAVA Foundation and developed jointly by Z/Yen and Finance Watch.

The launch event was introduced by Benoît Lallemand, Secretary General of Finance Watch, who set out the context for the Index and its aims of providing insight on what makes a financial centre green or not; promoting a race to the top in green finance; and spreading best practice in green finance and green financial centres. Our guest speaker, Sarah Goddard, Secretary General of the Association of Mutual Insurers and Insurance Cooperatives Europe (AMICE), spoke of the long experience of the insurance market in considering and building data on the impact of climate change. She noted that it was only in recent years that the insurance industry had been invited to play a fuller part in discussions around green finance. She welcomed the GGFI as a step towards developing a longitudinal set of data which would catalyse green finance development. Finally, in the week leading up to St Patrick’s Day and what would turn out to be a big day for Irish rugby, Sarah drew on her Irish roots to wish Lá fhéile Pádraig sona dhaoibh to all present.

Professor Michael Mainelli of Z/Yen spoke on the results of GGFI 1. He reflected that the time was now right to institute the index, with a consistent interest developing in recent years in green finance. The index focused both on the depth of green finance within the total finance offering in centres; and the quality of the green finance work being undertaken in centres.

The key headlines that Michael focused on were:

• Scores were generally closely clustered, which suggests there will be change in the rankings over time;
• Centres which have demonstrated significant leadership on green finance such as Paris and Luxembourg achieved high ranking in the index;
• For depth, Western Europe and China performed well;
• For quality, the US did well alongside Western Europe;
• A number of centres were close to receiving a pace in the index and we would expect the number of centres featuring in the index to increase as the number of people responding to the questionnaire increases;
• There was most interest in Sustainable Infrastructure Finance and Green Bonds;
• These areas were also seen to have most impact on sustainability;
• The report has sparked areas on which further research might focus, including the factors that lead to improvement, the effectiveness of policy, and the views of those with differing levels of involvement in the field.

Michael concluded by thanking our sponsors, the MAVA Foundation for its support and by adding his good wishes for St Patrick’s Day to Sarah’s, with a call of Erin go Bragh. Green was definitely the colour of the week.