The Road to Glasgow Speech given by Mark Carney Governor of the Bank of England, Finance Adviser to the Prime Minister for COP26  Guildhall 27 February 2020  I would like to thank Jennifer Nemeth for her assistance in drafting these remarks and Jennifer Bell, Sarah Breeden, Alice Carr, Iren Levina, Sini Matikainen and Harriet O’Brien for their input. 1  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/news/speeches  Introduction Sir David Attenborough’s prophetic introduction has exposed the scale of the challenges and hinted at the enormous opportunities before us. And the Secretary of State has just described the prospect of a lasting COP 26 legacy and the opportunity for finance to be the force for good we know it can be. Now is the time to answer these calls to action. Private finance will have a critical role to play in a successful transition to a net zero carbon economy. With the UK COP26 Presidency, in partnership with Italy, the world is watching. Today is all about action. The actions the private financial sector can take to support a whole economy transition. The actions that regulators, governments and countries will take to catalyse your efforts. The actions that our fellow citizens are demanding, and that future generations deserve. And you have already begun. Private finance is now increasingly focused on the opportunities and risks in the transition.
6  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/news/speeches  6  3. Progress on transition as assessed against industry-specific transition pathways to help identify the leaders and laggards in the transition; and 4. Degree warming potential of the portfolio, which assesses the quality of transition plans relative to the Paris goals. Firms such as Aviva, Axa and Allianz have already voluntarily disclosed this information. They are now feeding into a TCFD group that is considering whether the warming potential, or any other metric, is the best way to measure the potential opportunities in the transition. For COP 26, we intend to leverage the success of existing groups and coalitions, like the Net Zero Asset Owner alliance, Climate Action 100+ and the UN PRI to build a large coalition of asset owners and asset managers who expect their portfolio companies to become Net Zero aligned. MDBs and Innovative Finance The work on reporting, risk and returns will put in place the foundations for private finance to help drive the transition to net zero, but much more must be done across the full spectrum of the financial sector. Multilateral Development Banks and Development Finance Institutions have essential roles in mobilising blended finance for adaptation, resilience and mitigation, especially in the communities most exposed to the devastating effects of climate change. As the Secretary of State noted, we will be asking these institutions to develop robust implementation plans for Paris Alignment in the run up to COP26.