London Climate Action Week Event - Positive tipping points to net zero and how to finance them

About this Event

Please see the GSI event webpage for a full recording and related content

A one hour interactive deep dive into how finance can accelerate climate action hosted by the Global Systems Institute (GSI) at the University of Exeter.

To open, Professor Tim Lenton, Director GSI, will present his theory of positive tipping points and how the finance sector can help to accelerate these. We will then hear from representatives of companies disrupting entire markets about how finance could more effectively help them. Finally, Tim will work with experts from the finance sector and the event audience to co-create the 3 best ways the sector can contribute towards positive tipping points.

Panellists:

• Eoin Murray, Head of Investment, International at Federated Hermes

• Zoe Knight, Group Head, HSBC Centre of Sustainable Finance

• Astrid Manroth, Director Climate Finance at the European Climate Foundation

Agenda:

• Introduction by Cassie Flynn, UNDP

• Keynote by Professor Tim Lenton, University of Exeter

• Pre-recorded vox pops from leaders of disruptive businesses on how the finance sector can help them accelerate the path to net zero

• Introduction to panellists and 3 person panel discussion - Co-Creating The 3 Best Ways for Finance to Support the Drive to Net Zero

• Q&A

• Closing statements

Registration:

For full details and to register your free place at this event, click here.

If you have any questions regarding the event please contact: research-events@exeter.ac.uk

Speaker details:

Eoin Murray, Head of Investment, International at Federated Hermes

Eoin is Head of Investment and a member of the Executive Committee. Eoin also leads the Investment Office, which is responsible to clients for the investment teams’ consistent delivery of responsible, risk-adjusted performance and adherence to the processes which earned them their ‘kitemarks’. Eoin joined the international business of Federated Hermes in January 2015 with almost 30 years’ investment experience. Eoin joined from GSA Capital Partners, where he was a fund manager. Before this, he was Chief Investment Officer at Old Mutual from 2004 to 2008 and also held senior positions at Callanish Capital Partners LLP and Northern Trust Global Investments. He began his career as a graduate trainee at Manufacturers Hanover Trust (now JPMorgan Chase) and subsequently performed senior portfolio manager roles at Wells Fargo Nikko Investment Advisors (now BlackRock), PanAgora Asset Management and First Quadrant. Eoin earned an MA (Hons) in Economics and Law from the University of Edinburgh and an MBA from Warwick Business School. Eoin is a Freeman of the City of London, a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Blacksmiths, Master of the Guild of Investment Managers, and a Fellow of the RSA. He is a member of the Exmoor Search and Rescue team, a fully qualified Swift-water Rescue Technician, a Powerboat Rescue Operator and a Flood Water Incident Manager.

Zoe Knight, Group Head, HSBC Centre of Sustainable Finance

Zoë Knight is a Managing Director and Group Head of the HSBC Centre of Sustainable Finance.  She has advised global institutional investors on equity investing and climate change for over 20 years, and authored the ‘Keeping it Cool’ Series of investor briefings on climate policy, economics and investment ideas from 2014 to 2017. In 2018 Zoë set up the Centre of Sustainable finance.  The Centre provides thought leadership about transforming the real economy and strengthening the financial system response to climate change.  Zoë joined HSBC in 2010 and since then has co-authored reports on low-carbon opportunities in bond and equity markets, as well as long-term carbon and water risks.  She is a Commissioner on the Energy Transition Commission, and Members of the WEF Global Future Council on Global Public Goods in the Fourth Industrial Revolution and TCFD group on measuring implied temperature rises associated with asset ownership. In 2020, she was recognised as one of 275 Global female energy influencers by the Women’s Energy Council.

Astrid Manroth, Director Climate Finance at the European Climate Foundation

Astrid is the Director Climate Finance at the European Climate Foundation where she managed a strategic program in support of aligning finance flows with the Paris Agreement and the EU’s Net Zero 2050 Climate Law through sustainable finance regulation and shifting and growing climate finance flows from public and private sources. Astrid brings over 20 years of experience in climate finance, development finance and sustainable investments in Europe, Africa and Latin America. On the public finance side, she held prior managerial positions at the World Bank and the African Development Bank, including based in Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Ukraine. In private finance, Astrid started her career at JPMorgan and also worked as Managing Director, Sustainable Investments Europe and Africa, at Deutsche Bank Asset Management. Astrid holds an MBA from Koblenz School of Corporate Governance and an MSc from London School of Economics and Political Science.

Cassie Flynn, UNDP

Cassie Flynn is the Strategic Advisor on Climate Change in the Executive Office of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Cassie is an internationally recognised expert on the international treaty negotiations on climate change and provides advice to countries on how to develop and fulfil their pledges under the Paris Agreement. In 2017 – 2018, she served as a senior advisor to the Prime Minister of Fiji in his role as COP23 President.
In 2017, she was named the 13th most influential person on climate change by Onalytica.
Prior to UNDP, Cassie provided strategic advisory services on climate change and sustainability to national, state and local governments, international organizations, multi-billion dollar companies, and civil society groups. Cassie also co-founded ioby.org, a non-profit to help build stronger, more sustainable neighbourhoods. She, along with her co-founders, won a Jane Jacobs medal for her work with ioby.org. Cassie has also advised numerous creative media projects such as the film Angry Birds, television show Incorporated, and music project Happy Sounds Like. Cassie earned her Master’s degree from Yale University and undergraduate degrees from Bowdoin College. In 2011, Cassie published “Blending Climate Finance through National Climate Funds,” a guidebook on designing and establishing national funds. In 2013, Cassie published "South-Originating Green Finance: Exploring the Potential."