One of the Maldives islands in the Indian Ocean at one metre above sea level

His Excellency Mohamed Nasheed, former President of the Maldives began by pulling out multi-sided dice with ratios written on each of its faces. His thoughts? There are different ratios of survival, he reflected. “The winds are higher, the waves are more, the summers of longer and we have rampant coastal erosion,” he said. “Our coral reefs are bleaching, we are losing our biodiversity, and rising sea water is contaminating our aquifers,” he added.  

He called for countries to help each other. “It’s not just about saving the Maldives, it’s not just about one country” he said. His Excellency was, however, encouraged that climate change had grown from being just a moral and environmental issue to become a finance and economic one. “This is when things start changing,” he suggested.

More than 80% of the Maldives’ 1,000 island-strong archipelago lies at less than one metre above sea level. A rise of more than a metre means³ the country will have disappeared. His wish inscribed on the green number six? “A climate agreement in six years,” he concluded, but pointed out the window for getting this done is currently seven years.

Being part of the COP26 goal achievement solution

Taking the theme of financial engagement further, Schmitt decided that Glasgow was a good opportunity to hear from fellow attendee Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing what it means for financial institutions.

Meeting just outside the convention centre and within sight of the trusty EV that got him to Scotland, Schmitt asked Sewing what the financial industry’s main duty is to achieve the COP26 goals “properly” while inviting him to take a gift from the box. Drawing a toy racing car, the CEO advocated that motor racing should go all-electric.

"We need to provide the balance sheet to our clients, and we need clear transformation plans from them"
Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing

“We, as financial institutions can be part of the solution, just as we have been part of the solution during the pandemic,” said Sewing. “We need to provide the balance sheet to our clients, and we need clear transformation plans from them. If we connect client centricity with sustainability, we have a big chance to be a big supporter of that transformation.”

Inscribing “finally, traction” on the giant green C, Sewing said it reflected the fact that “we have done a lot of discussion” and now was the time for a clear framework, clear roadmaps and commitments from all participants – politicians, regulators and the economies – to move from words to action.

Newcastle Helix. Source: Simon Cotterill (flickr, public domain)

One of the stops en route took the team into Newcastle, the university city that was formerly a shipbuilding and manufacturing hub during the 19th century’s CO2 emitting Industrial Revolution and is now a centre of business, arts and sciences. #ExpeditionFinance caught up with Deutsche Bank colleague Steve Corry from the Technology team, who was acting as an impromptu tour guide to Newcastle Helix, the 24-hour “testbed and collaborative ecosystem for public and private bodies that’s unlike anything else in the UK” to quote its website description.

Corry introduced Schmitt to Tom Bramald, its Marketing Manager. “A university, a local council and large corporate partners are working together to redevelop a site that has been a coal mine and a very large brewery, now being redeveloped as an urban innovation and living space,” explained Bramald. He added that when a brewery, the site had created a barrier within the city, and the development was taking particular care to ensure this was not repeated. “We want people to move through the site and take their time in it,” he said.

Pointing to a gold-coloured building, Bramald indicated this was Newcastle Helix’s district energy centre. “We produce our own energy heating and cooling and that is connected to all the buildings on the site so it is centralised,” he said, adding that the enterprise anticipated this could save 40,000 tons of carbon over a 30-year period. Wishes inscribed onto COP26’s giant green C and 6 from Corry and Bramald were to “Build a better future” and “start doing some real actions”.

Cost of lost natural resources

Another stop took Schmitt to Cambridge, home to the CISL where he met with Grant Rudgley, an expert in Sustainable Finance. By way of background CISL is the home of the Banking Environment Initiative (BEI).3

As Rudgley pulled from the gift box a glass sphere that displayed the night sky, he said we all need to “aim for the stars”. “Why is nature loss a financial risk?” Schmitt asked him. Rudgley responded that “studies have shown that more than 50% of our global GDP is moderately or highly dependent on the services nature provides – fresh water, clean air, healthy soils and so if those services degrade and we lose nature we are putting our economy at very significant risk.”

Rudgley’s wish was that banks and investment managers would download and read the new Handbook for Nature-related Financial Risks, just published on the CISL website. His motivation for publishing this was to highlight the opportunity to factor the risk of lost nature into financial decisions, so “then we can better value nature and our economy can evolve as a result.”