Finance in the Public Interest - A Just Transition – Why it matters and how investors can enable it?

Speakers:

Paul Clements-Hunt, Founder of the Blended Capital Group

Over 30 years Paul Clements-Hunt has built and managed cross disciplinary boards and teams in business, the United Nations, and civil society organisations to drive the sustainable finance agenda.In 2004, as a United Nations official, Paul coined ESG (environmental, social and governance), now mainstreaming in investment globally. In April 2006, Paul’s UNEP Finance Initiative team successfully delivered the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) launched by the late UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. Paul was a Founding UN Board Member to the PRI from launch for six years (2006-2012). The PRI is backed in March 2022 by more than 4500 institutions representing U$83 trillion in assets under management. In October 2021 Paul was asked by the UN to prepare a briefing paper for the Sustainable Finance Working Group (SFWG) of the G20 Finance Ministers/ Central Bank Governors. The paper focuses on the future of sustainable finance in the context of accounting, reporting and disclosure. In March 2012 Paul left the UN to establish The Blended Capital Group, an advisory company which also invests in sustainability aligned business. MWEZI Solar is one such example. In 2012, Paul backed MWEZI, a for-profit last mile distributor of clean energy and productive use solar powered agricultural technologies now serving 60,000 farming and fishing families in Western Kenya through affordable credit with insurance. Paul is now taking the MWEZI model into Amazonia, Brazil, with the backing of one of the country’s largest water and sanitation utilities. Paul’s pro-bono roles for change-making organisations have included: Chair, Board of Trustees for Future-Fit Foundation, a UK Charity working to position business as fit for purpose for the 21^st Century; and for four years he was Chair of the SOS SAHEL International Advisory Council, advising the largest and oldest French NGO in Africa, working on food security and nutrition issues across the 11 Sahelian Countries since 1977.

Adepeju Adeosun Napier (Peju), Sustainable Finance Manager at Ernst & Young

Adepeju  is Senior Manager in UK Sustainable Finance leading engagement on ESG and Climate for private equity and alternative assets. She also drives EY’s wider solutions around Net Zero, Climate risk and Just Transition for Financial services.  experiences include responsible investment, portfolio climate risk, impact investment, carbon removal, stewardship and strategic ESG engagement across a range of FS and non-FS sectors. 

Before joining EY, Adepeju was the Virgin Group Net Zero & Sustainability Manager. In this role she provided strategic and technical ESG expertise to support investment activities and engage portfolio companies across a wide range of sectors on their material ESG issues. She previously led the management of a $25 million climate change innovation prize focused on scaling both nature-based and technology-based carbon removal solutions.

Adepeju has a BEng in Chemical Engineering from University College London and an MSc in Sustainable Energy Futures from Imperial College London and a BEng in Chemical Engineering from University College London. She also co-authored a 2015 Nature Climate Change Publication titled “Investing in Negative Emissions” which focused on outlining the key barriers to investment and scale-up to carbon removal solutions.

Carlota Garcia Manas, Head of Engagement and Climate Lead at Royal London Asset Management

Carlota leads the development of RLAM engagement programmes, its Climate Transition Plan and Net Zero strategy.  She manages a team of analysts and engagement managers from within RLAM’s RI team (focusing on Climate change and Just Transition, Cybersecurity and Technology, Governance and Corporate Culture, Biodiversity and Health). Carlota joined from the Church of England National Investing Bodies, where she spent three years running high profile corporate engagements focused on climate change, international corporate tax, and board diversity (among others). Before joining the Church of England, she was the Director of Products and Services at a tech start-up (Datamaran, formerly eRevalue) where she led the research team to develop software for sustainability benchmarking. Prior to that, she spent 10 years and was Head of Research at EIRIS (now Moody’s following its merger with Vigeo) where she led global ESG research and product development. Carlota is a Civil Engineer with an MSc in Environmental Economics and has a deep interest in analytics and the integration of externalities (environmental and social) in corporate assessment, policy intervention and scenario analysis. She has developed techniques learned during her business development and sales role at eRevalue in her company engagements. Carlota represents RLAM on the Climate Financial Risk Forum (CFRF) and also its Transition to Net Zero working group.

Chair: Sandy Trust, Chair of the IFoA Sustainability Board and Director of Sustainable Finance at Ernst & Young

Sandy leads the Sustainable Finance consulting team in EY UK Financial Services, working with clients on a range of projects including net zero, climate risk and TCFD reporting, Stewardship, ESG investment and sustainability. He leads EY’s net zero solution in EMEIA Financial services. Sandy is a qualified actuary, with 20 years in the financial services industry, incorporating a combination of industry and professional services experience.

Sandy is current Chair of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFOA) Sustainability Board and part of a number of industry initiatives on net zero and impact investing. He is also chair of climate change action charity Protect Our Winters UK.

He is passionate about sustainable finance and in particular the need to address the challenges that climate change poses. He firmly believes that actuaries have an opportunity and a responsibility here, given our collective influence in the global financial system.