• Achim Steiner
    "Combining private sector financial flows and smart public policy will be a key to a low carbon, resource efficient 21st century Green Economy."
     
    Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive Director
  • Gordon Brown
    "By kick-starting this engagement on issues of systemic risk and financial sustainability with the United Nations community, my hope is to contribute to defining the new kind of thinking and action that we must embrace to address the challenges of a global economy when climate change, resource scarcity, commodity price volatility and income inequality, amongst other ongoing concerns, will set the future context for our finance sector and global capital markets."
     
    Gordon Brown, former UK Prime Minister
  • Mary Robinson
    "The UN framework affirms that all businesses have a responsibility to respect human rights and that all must be able to demonstrate that they are meeting this responsibility through due diligence and positive actions irrespective of local contexts and government capacities. Many companies still have a great deal of work to do to make human rights due diligence part of their operations and to ensure that at minimum, their actions do not undermine respect for rights and indeed contribute to realizing rights in people’s lives."
     
    Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland
  • Barbara Krumsiek
    "I look forward to welcoming key stakeholders from around the world to Washington, D.C. for the UNEP FI Global Roundtable. My hope is that the event will build the critical partnerships that are necessary to move the sustainable development agenda forward."
     
    Barbara J. Krumsiek, Calvert Investments President and CEO, UNEP Finance Initiative Co-Chair
  • Kai Buntrock
    “I expect a truly catalytic reaction as to the felt and understood necessity of policy makers for placing the discussion on a sustainable policy framework - targeting the future private sector mobilisation and involvement - centre stage!”
     
    Kai Buntrock, Senior Investment Manager, DEG
  • Yvo de Boer
    “I hope the UNEP FI conference will explore best practice in ESG-investing, particularly in the US where we see new levels of interest from mainstream investors. The step change for companies is recognizing that investors have a valid interest in understanding how these issues are being managed across multiple asset classes.”
     
    Yvo de Boer, KPMG’s Special Global Advisor on Climate Change and Sustainability
  • Ernst Rauch
    "Munich Re is particularly looking forward to the expert workshop on climate information services for financial institutions at the UNEP FI’s Global Roundtable 2011. We appreciate the establishment and work of climate information centres, as reinsurance companies would benefit from the broader financial services and insurance sector. This would enhance the overall resilience of the entire sector in light of climate change impacts."
     
    Ernst Rauch, Head of Climate Change Centre, Munich Re
  • Nassim Taleb
    "Owing to [...] misunderstanding of the causal chains between policy and actions, we can easily trigger Black Swans thanks to aggressive ignorance - like a child playing with a chemistry kit."
     
    Nassim Taleb, author of The Black Swan

MEDIA ADVISORY

For immediate release

 

UNEP FI and Globe Foundation sparking global conversation on ‘road to Rio+20’

 

Geneva/Vancouver, 24 August, 2011 – The United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) is pleased to collaborate with the GLOBE Foundation to offer multiple platforms for thinking, dialogue  and action by the worldwide financial services and investment community in the run up to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in June 2012.

 

The planned landmark gathering of leaders from the worlds of politics, business, and civil society will convene in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on June 4-6, 2012. This major global summit marks the 20th anniversary of the original 1992 Rio Earth Summit. UNEP FI and the GLOBE Foundation believe that collaborative action across the finance and investment community is critical for sustainability to be achieved in the wider economy.

 

With that goal in mind, organizations involved in sustainable finance and responsible investment are encouraged to attend two critical discussion forums in advance of Rio+20.

 

·       October 19-20, 2011: UNEP FI’s 13th Global Roundtable, Washington, DC – a major global gathering of the banking, insurance and investment communities joined by world-class leaders and thinkers such as Gordon Brown and Nassim Taleb eight months ahead of Rio+20.

 

·       March 14-16, 2012: GLOBE 2012, Vancouver, Canada – one of North America’s largest environmental technology trade shows and sustainable business conferences dating back to 1990. One of the last opportunities to discuss global level strategies prior to the June summit.

 

"No corporation, organization or non-profit operates as an island. In this post-recession environment, communication between all facets of business is crucial," saidJohn Wiebe, President and CEO of the GLOBE Foundation. “In facilitating global conversation amongst bankers, insurers and investors we ensure an active approach to creating a sustainable finance environment where responsible investment is a priority.”

 

"The swings in market volatility in recent days have confirmed, once again, our belief that a serious, deep and well-structured conversation needs to take place between the mainstream economy and forward-thinking capital market players," said Paul Clements-Hunt, head of UNEP FI. "Opportunities to sit at the same table the key interlocutors in that conversation are few in the run-up to the milestone Rio+20 summit. We must make each one count by paving them with a clear roadmap to a financially sustainable economy."