In November, Z/Yen was kindly invited to participate at the ESDN workshop 2012 titled “Financial Markets, Institutions and Policies in the Context of Sustainable Development - Dimensions, Issues and Actors of an Emerging Arena”. This two day workshop gathered 55 participants from 15 countries including academics, European and national civil servants as well as financial services professionals. Chiara von Gunten gave a presentation on the UK perspective on financial markets, institutions and policies taking a sustainability perspective. Chiara presented figures on the significance of the financial services industry to the UK economy and the latest pending regulatory development, the Financial Services Bill, which gains royal ascent at the end of this year. She went on cast doubt over the UK’s ability to leverage private capital into ‘green investments’ such as renewable energies, cleaner technologies or climate change mitigation and adaptation, despite the topic being fairly high on the UK’s policy agenda. She concluded that policy risk in this area remained significant. Chiara closed her presentation with the concept of index-linked carbon bonds, an idea which emerged through the London Accord, which would provide investors with a hedge and thereby enable more confidence to invest in projects that pay off in a low-carbon future.

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