PM aiming to schmooze globe’s top finance brass at green summit
The chiefs of the globe’s top finance brass will attend a green summit hosted by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
The bosses of Wall Street behemoths JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs and asset manager big beasts BlackRock and Blackstone will be among those Johnson is hoping to schmooze to generate billions of pounds of investment for the UK.
Over 200 investors are anticipated to attend the event this month, which will host a reception at Windsor Castle attended by members of the royal family. The Financial Times first reported the news.
David Solomon, chief executive of Goldman, Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan’s chief, BlackRock’s Larry Fink and Blackstone founder Stephen Schwarzman are expected to be there.
Delegates of sovereign wealth funds Mubadala and GIC will also attend.
The event is in part intended to signal the Prime Minister’s intent to rapidly gear the UK toward a green economy ahead of the COP26 summit.
Jes Staley, Barclays’ boss and Charlie Nunn, the newly crowned Lloyds chief, are also reportedly on the guest list. NatWest chief Alison Rose and Amanda Blanc, Aviva’s chief, will also be among those in the PM’s crosshairs.
“This is being held to make deals happen… you won’t be invited unless you’re a trigger puller with either something to build in the UK or a deal to be struck,” an official close to the preparation of the event told the FT.
Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak are expected to give speeches at the summit.
On the agenda at the meeting is a discussion on how businesses and governments can allocate capital to tackling climate change more efficiently.
The organisation representing the world’s largest economies this week slammed metrics used for investing in green assets for lacking “transparency” and “clarity”.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said in a report “competing dynamics and challenges associated with ESG rating and investing could compromise market integrity, erode investor confidence, and mask the extent of environmental and climate-related impacts of investment decisions.”