Editorial

Significant amounts of capital are needed to finance a lower carbon and more climate resilient economic and societal model worldwide. This is a challenge that the financial sector can help overcome. The Climate Finance Day, on 22 May in Paris, is a crucial milestone on the road to COP21, the United Nations Conference that will seal a new international agreement on how to tackle climate change including a long term financial structure for climate action.

The Climate Finance Day gathers major financial actors – investors, banks and insurers – alongside policy makers and other climate stakeholders. Its first objective is to promote and discuss the multiple innovative financial solutions currently available or emerging. It is also an opportunity to extend the voluntary commitments of financial players, initiated by the United Nations Climate Summit in September 2014, and report on progress achieved to date.

Finally, it aims to foster cooperation between public and private financial players to facilitate and steadily accelerate investment into the green economy.
Finance has a crucial role to play in steering our economies towards a more sustainable model. The Climate Finance Day will support this process by encouraging all players in the financial community to step in that direction.

Gérard Mestrallet, Chairman, Paris EUROPLACE

Pierre-René Lemas CEO, Caisse des Dépôts Group

Jonathan Taylor, Vice-President, European Investment Bank