Seahorse at COP26
Seahorse was pleased to join the mass of politicians, NGOs, activists, journalists and businesses in making the trip to Glasgow for COP26 and feel honoured to have met some amazing people striving to make a difference during this crucial summit.
Seahorse Founder and Managing Director, Isabella Gornall, had the opportunity to attend, lead and speak on a variety of panels and events during the two-week conference including the Green Horizon Summit co-hosted by the City of London Corporation and Green Finance Institute.
APPG on Sustainable Finance ‘Strengthening Parliamentary Consensus for Global Change’
As co-founder and member of the APPG on Sustainable Finance Advisory Board, Isabella was involved in organising a joint event with environmentally focused APPGs and groups in the COP26 Green Zone. The focus of the event was on ‘Strengthening Parliamentary Consensus for Global Change’.
Attendees heard from chairs of the APPG on Sustainable Finance (Ed Davey), PRASEG (Bim Afolami), Net Zero APPG (Anna McMorrin, Alex Sobel), Environment APPG (Anthony Browne), Environmental Audit Committee (Philip Dunne) and Peers for the Planet (Baroness Hayman).
The event was a brilliant opportunity for Parliamentarians around the world to meet and network and hear speeches from international politicians and legislations, including representatives from Bangladesh, Malawi and Brazil.
The event is available to watch on catch up here.
Global Conservative Climate Summit
The Global Conservative Climate Summit was a two-day event held during COP26, organised by the Conservative Environment Network (UK), American Conservation Coalition (USA) and the Coalition For Conservation (Australia),
As a member of the Conservative Environment Network (CEN) Steering Committee Isabella chaired a session on ‘Decentralisation and communities: Little platoons – empowering local communities to protect their environment and create jobs’. Isabella was joined by Damian Drum MP (Nicholls, Victoria - Australia), Councillor Izzi Seccombe OBE (leader of Warwickshire County Council - UK), Saqib Bhatti MP (Meriden – UK) and Councillor Thomas Kerr (leader of Glasgow Conservatives, UK).
The panel discussed how we can only succeed in tackling climate change if we bring local communities along with us and if central and local government work in partnership to take action.
Seahorse Senior Advisor and CEN Deputy Chair Benet Northcote also chaired a session during the summit. The ‘Green finance: how to tackle climate change while creating prosperity’ event offered a platform to explain the scale of the opportunities that can come from investing in and growing green finance.
UK100
As Chair of UK100, Isabella hosted a session on the role of green finance in achieving net zero. Attendees at the session discussed the role of central government in supporting local government to finance the green transition. Although central government is vital in tackling the climate crisis, local government and councillors have a huge part to play in bringing local communities on board and securing sustainable finance to fund this crucial transition.
Green Horizon Summit
Global leaders gathered at the Green Horizon Summit, hosted by the Green Finance Institute and the City of London, to discuss the ways in which cities are innovating and collaborating to unlock the finance required to fund the net zero transition.
Isabella featured on the summit’s ‘Wake Up’ show discussing how to leverage private capital at the local level. During the discussion Isabella highlighted how recent research from UK100 found that £5 billion investment (from government or private sources) into local government for the net zero transition could unlock £100 billion pounds of investment.
Isabella also joined a Green Horizon Summit panel on ‘Financing Regional transition: UK’, discussing how cities and regions are financing the transition to net zero.
You can catch up with the Green Horizon Summit here.
The two weeks at COP26 provided a unique and valuable space for thinkers to come together and share insight into how we can take meaningful climate action. However, as we know the true impact of the summit depends on the success of the agreement finalised over the weekend.
The Prime Minister welcomed the agreement as a ‘game-changer’ but that his reaction was ‘tinged with disappointment’ with a last-minute intervention from India and China to ‘phase down’ not ‘phase out’ coal power. The response to the final agreement has been mixed, with Labour shadow business and energy secretary Ed Miliband saying that 1.5C target was ‘in intensive care’ and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warning that it is “time to go into emergency mode”.
Although the deal has been made all eyes remain on Alok Sharma to use his remaining year as COP26 President to persuade countries like China, Australia and Brazil to raise their targets to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees.