Financing sustainability in the post C-19 era – the role of family offices

Covid-19 arrived at the turn of the year, just as the climate movement had gathered near-unstoppable momentum.

Both the UK and France had agreed to net zero emissions targets, Greta Thunberg had become a household name, central bankers were talking about “climate stress tests”, and “green quantitative easing” had become a legitimate policy topic for Christine Lagarde, not just John McDonnell.

Yet despite this huge public policy narrative, it had been acknowledged that it would be private capital which would need to be mobilised on a grand scale to achieve climate change ambitions. Despite the rhetoric, not all owners of significant private wealth were drinking the green Kool Aid.

Guernsey Finance research, published in the Autumn 2019 in London, reported that nearly half of family offices still remained to be convinced of the merits of the case for investment in green finance projects.

Is that still the case today? Will it be really be billionaires who save the planet?

Wednesday’s webinar will focus on the role of family offices in financing sustainability, and how and indeed if this will change following Covid-19.

For this discussion, Dr Andy Sloan will be joined by David Bain, Editor of Family Capital magazine, Taeun Kwon, Head of Private Wealth Programmes at the University of Zurich’s Centre for Sustainable Finance and Private Wealth, and Guernsey-resident turnaround investor Jon Moulton, an active investor in sustainable finance for decades.

Our podcast today will be Sabine Döbeli, Managing Director of the Swiss Sustainable Finance Initiative, who will be providing a view on Covid-19’s impact from Switzerland and wider Europe, in conversation with Dr Andy Sloan.

Podcast

Wednesday's Speakers

Below are the speakers for the various podcasts and webinars today