London Financing for Sustainable Development Forum

On February 3, 2015, SDSN and Investec Asset Management (IAM) co-hosted the London Financing for Sustainable Development Forum. This Forum, held at the Honourable Artillery Company’s headquarters in London, brought together over 150 leading figures across the spheres of financial services and policy-making, in order to discuss, amongst other things, inclusive capitalism, infrastructure finance, climate finance and global partnerships. The conference is one in a series in the lead-up to the Third International Conference on Financing for Development, due to convene in Addis Ababa in July 2015, which will play a critical role in the world’s adoption of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015 and a strong climate agreement in Paris.

Download the conference report.

The conference focused on practical recommendations for the financial services community to transform itself for the sustainable development agenda. Specifically, delegates discussed the challenges and opportunities of mobilizing the world’s savings for the world’s future needs and the need for global finance to re-orient itself towards productive, inclusive and environmentally sustainable investments. A sustainable development investment framework for private investors would include, among other elements: more focus on long-term capital investment projects; an increase in blended public-private investing, including in low-carbon power, roads, education and healthcare; widespread corrective carbon pricing and the valuation of companies according to sustainable development compliance.

The conference was divided into four thematic sessions: 1) Inclusive Capitalism and Financial Market Design, 2) Infrastructure Finance, 3) Climate Finance and 4) Public-Private Partnerships. The SDSN will be convening similar gatherings in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Seoul, South Korea in the lead-up to the Third International Conference on Financing for Development.

A summary report, speaker presentations, video highlights, and event photos are available here via Investec Asset Management.

This event was covered by Pensions & Investments