Event Highlights
The Road to Net Zero
February 16, 2021
By Bloomberg Live
Corporations and investors globally are working to align with the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting warming to well-below 2 degrees Celsius, which will require global net-zero emissions by 2050. But what really needs to be done to make the transition to a low-carbon economy? Bloomberg Live convened leading executives from business and finance to discuss the challenges and opportunities that arise when transitioning to a low-carbon economy.
Click here to view video of today’s event.
Speakers included:
Jane Ewing, Senior Vice President, Sustainability, Walmart
Sean Kidney, Co-Founder & CEO, Climate Bonds Initiative
Jessica O. Matthews, Founder & CEO, Uncharted Power
Deborah Ng, Head, Responsible Investing, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan
Dane Parker, Chief Sustainability Officer, General Motors
Amy West, Managing Director, Global Head of Sustainable Finance & Corporate Transitions, TD Securities
Bloomberg Participants:
Sonali Basak, Wall Street Reporter, Bloomberg
Mallika Kapur, Deputy Global Editor, Bloomberg Live
Akshat Rathi, Reporter, Bloomberg Green
Event Highlights:
On GM’s new net-zero target, Dane Parker, Chief Sustainability Officer, General Motors stated “Our commitment was to be carbon neutral in our products and our operations. In our case, our products are about 75% of our footprint. So that’s a very seismic shift for us and we’re going to do this with a science‐based target methodology path.”
When discussing how Walmart tracks and reports on their net-zero goal, Jane Ewing, Senior Vice President of Sustainability indicated “We estimate direct, indirect and partial supply chain emissions in accordance with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. We also report to the CDP and, happily, both in 2019 and 2020, we made the A List For Climate Action. And then we obviously report those findings in our ESG report and other areas that we issue that every year.”
On where she sees the greatest opportunity, Jessica O. Matthews, Founder & CEO, Uncharted Power said “I’m the most excited about interoperability. I think to the extent that we can de‐silo the different infrastructure solution companies in the way that they engage with each other and the way that they work with the cities and in the way that they also deliver these solutions to the citizen, really thinking about the interoperability of these systems and how they can grow from there. That’s by far one of the most exciting things for me.”
On making the case for doing well while doing good, Sean Kidney, Co-Founder & CEO, Climate Bonds Initiative said “One of the things we’ve proven over the last few years is that people that invest in these things actually do better than the mainstream. In the German market where the green bond has been issued at a slight discount to the primary market, they’re actually performing eight basis points better in the secondary market than a vanilla bond. Investors know this, investors see this, and, what’s more, in the downturn, they hold their value. We can make money while doing good. Green bonds have proven the point.”
On the importance of reporting, Amy West, Managing Director, Global Head of Sustainable Finance & Corporate Transitions, TD Securities said “I actually think the area that we could improve the most would be on actual corporate sustainability reporting. And I think that that’s going to be increasingly important, given the uptick in interest around sustainability-linked debt offerings this year. Because, suddenly, it’s not just about what the proceeds of that specific bond are going to be, but it’s holistically, how’s the company measuring forward progress? And so institutions like the GRI, SASB, TCFD, these are going to become really important because in these reports it’s going to allow investors to make comparisons on a more apples to apples basis.”
On the urgency of action, Deborah Ng, Head, Responsible Investing, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan said “How fast this transition happens sees a direct bearing on the pension plan and our ability to earn returns. We are a global investor. We are exposed to the global economy for a very long period of time. We don’t have the luxury as a company to sort of say, hey, I can manage my own operations and get to net zero as a company, but as a pension plan with 3,000 investments, we have to get all of those investments to net zero. So, for us, time is of the essence, we have a lot of work ahead and and every investor needs to sort of get started on that pathway now, because if we don’t make net zero by 2050, we are going to have some serious problems ahead of us.”
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