A great Lord Mayor's speech

In his banquet speech last night, the new Lord Mayor called for a re-established social contract between financial institutions and the society they serve.

He suggested that the contract recognise “on the one hand that the UK benefits from financial services, and on the other that we need to do whatever it takes to serve the interests of the individual as well as those of the wider economy”.

The Lord Mayor’s speech also identified that climate change “may be an even greater threat” than the economic crisis. He called for the City to consider, post Copenhagen, how it can build on its leadership in sustainable finance to “do yet more to bring our expertise to bear on building sustainable solutions.”

If this is an early indication, we can expect much from the new Lord Mayor's year in office.

We’ll be back after National Ethical Investment Week!

The UKSIF team are rather busy this week, co-ordinating the second National Ethical Investment Week to spread the word about green and ethical investing to consumers, financial advisers and charities.

Our research has found that half of Britons with savings and investments would like to make money and make a difference. We are flagging up that today’s green and ethical investments are a great way to do this – particularly in the run-up to the Copenhagen summit.

For example, we are offering financial advisers “Summit to think about” at Money Marketing Online.

But, as a result, we won’t be posting any more to this blog until the week is over.

Have a happy National Ethical Investment Week 2009.

Global Centre Report: A Missed Opportunity for Green Leadership?

Yesterday saw the launch of “Asset management: the UK as a global centre”, a report produced under the joint chairmanship of the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Chair of the UK’s Investment Management Association.

There is a major missed opportunity in the report. This can be summed up in three words - “carbon”, “climate” and “green”. I searched the PDF for all of them. Each returned “No matches were found”.

So, within a month of the Copenhagen Summit, this significant report on future UK leadership in asset management doesn’t even mention the challenge of redirecting capital towards low carbon industrial and social transformation.

Welcoming the report, Financial Services Secretary Paul Myners said he looked forward to “… the prospect of on-going engagement with the industry on .. the role of markets in society and ethical and moral dimensions to investment”. Lets hope he addresses this!

Capital and Control

The flow of reports and comments in the run-up to both Copenhagen and the final recommendations of the Walker Review continues this week.

“Catalysing low-carbon growth in developing economies: Public Finance Mechanisms to scale up private sector investments in climate solutions” is the latest on “capital” for the low carbon economy. It was launched today by UNEP in partnership with an impressive range of pension, investment and insurance organisations.

Meanwhile, on effective shareholder ownership and “control”, I was struck by this piece “not more regulation, more Responsibility” from Colin Melvin of Hermes in Sunday’s Independent.

Is more focus on “having fun” part of the way forward for the finance sector?

As the recent Tomorrow’s Company report “Tomorrow’s Innovation, Risk and Governance” highlights, creating an effective organisational culture is an essential part of building successful and sustainable organisations in the finance sector and elsewhere.

So following my post on the Archbishop of Canterbury’s speech, I was fascinated by this contribution from Cognitive Policy Works on the role of fun (aka motivational psychology) in “saving the world”.

OK, so maybe fun isn’t quite the right term – but what we do need today is more focus on values and culture in the finance sector – and fun isn’t a bad place to start!

Archbishop highlights a shared cultural crisis

Creating a more responsible finance sector requires rebuilding its connection to the wider world and rediscovering a sense of both responsibility for the future of the natural world and joy in making a positive contribution. Or at least that was my conclusion after reading a powerful speech by the Archbishop of Canterbury on climate change delivered last week.

The Archbishop talks about a shared cultural crisis that “could be summed up rather dramatically by saying that it’s a loss of a sense of what life is … a web of interactions, mutual givings and receivings”. He talks about “our calling to nourish” life and secure “a future for all living things”.

He says “a good deal of the talk and activity around the financial collapse has the marks of .. ‘displacement activity’ – precisely because it fails to see where the roots of the problem lie; in our amnesia about the human calling” and “whatever we do to combat the nightmare possibilities of wholesale environmental catastrophe has to be grounded not primarily in the scramble for survival but in the hope of human happiness”.

Even if – like me - you don’t share his religious lens, the speech contains valuable and inspiring insights. Many thanks to UKSIF Vice Chair Helen Wildsmith for pointing me to it.

Green Bonds and a UK Green Investment Bank: New public policy resource

Green Alliance has just launched a useful new section of its website called Green Finance UK. This aims to cover the developing public policy debates on Green Bonds and a UK Green Investment Bank. Worth checking out!