After months of planning and coordinating, we are finally on the home stretch to COP28. In this moment of calm before the storm, the team at Bankers for Net Zero would like to stop and reflect on how far we come and extend our sincerest gratitude to all of the people and organisations that have helped build Bankers for Net Zero over the past four years into the organisation that we are today.  

Rewinding to 2019 and COP26, Bankers for Net Zero was established to galvanise some action and ambition from the UK financial services, with the purpose of being a one-off project to facilitate the inevitable difficult conversations that would arise as the financial services and the economy transitions to net zero.  

We then found ourselves amidst a global pandemic, and as a result, our one-off project became a 2-year venture. In which time, our CEO Heather Buchanan worked closely with the cabinet office and the UNFCCC’s Race to Zero. Fast forwarding to 2021, The Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero and the UN-Convened Net Zero Banking Alliance were officially launched and Bankers for Net Zero convened the first country chapter in the world of the NZBA and became an accelerator in the Race to Zero. 

Four years after our inception, facilitating both the difficult and the inspiring discussions to work through the tensions in the system and get finance flowing towards the transition to net zero has remains at the very heart of what we do. Across our core workstreams, we remain focused on turning commitments into action and convening and collaborating the stakeholders critical to do so.  

We are now approaching COP28, and Bankers for Net Zero are heading out to Dubai as a core partner of the UK Pavilion and a vast membership base that we are truly proud of. With that in mind, we would like to recognise our banking and corporate members who have earnestly rolled their sleeves up with us and acted as true leaders on climate change:  

British Business Bank, HSBC UK, Santander, Allica Bank, Clear Bank, Handelsbanken, OakNorth Bank, Paragon, Tide, Triodos Bank, Ecology Building Society, NatWest, Atom Bank, Oxbury, Welsh Development Bank. 

We would also like to thank the individuals, partnering bodies and organisations that made our journey from COP26 to COP28 possible.  

First and foremost, the individuals that created and supported Bankers for Net Zero at the from the very start: 

  • Louise Roper, a co-founder of Bankers for Net Zero and a true and invaluable asset to our team today 
  • Nigel Topping and Gonzalo Munoz, the UK’s High Level Climate Champions that we worked closely with through the pandemic  
  • Alok Sharma, Secretary of State for International Development (2019 position) and John Glen at HMT of whom we worked closely with in 2019 and 2020  
  • Our initial steering committee: Bevis Watts, Charles McManus, Dame Teresa Graham, Elsa Palanza, John Elkington, Kai Remco Fisher, Kevin Hollinrake MP, Meryam Omi, Munish Datta, Nick Robins, Nigel Topping, Oliver Prill, Paul Ellis, Richard Winder, Sandrine Dixson Declève and Sarah Gordon. 

As well as our partnering bodies and organisations who have been fundamental to Bankers for Net Zero, our workstreams and all of our accomplishments: 

  • UK Finance, The City UK, City of London Corp, SEC Newgate, Cap Gemini, LSE Grantham Insitute, E3G, GFI, Peers for the Panet, UNEP FI, Volans, WWF, Aldergate Group, Cambridge Institute for Sustainability, Finance innovation Lab, Green Alliance, Heart of the City, Climate Action, South Pole, Montreal Group, Bank of England, Normative, Impact Investing Institute, Smart Data Foundry, WPI, OECD, BEIS, CMA, DESNZ, HM Treasury, CBI, Federation of Small Businesses, IIGCC, BCC, UK SIF, IOD, UKGBC, TPT, Cabinet Office.  

To those that have been instrumental in our journey, please share this reflection among your members and to anyone who would like to hear more and join our ecosystem, please get in touch with the team. 

Thankyou