23. City of London Chamber Summer Reception, 14 September 2023


Many Livery Company Masters, Members of the City of London Corporation and other City leaders attended a reception hosted by the City of London Chamber in their prestigious Old Broad Street home.  In the packed hall we welcomed by Alderman Prem Goyal OBE, Founding Chair, City of London Chamber and Chairman, Audit and Risk Management Committee, City of London Corporation.

Chris Hayward, Policy Chairman, City of London Corporation, then shared the City vision for economic growth.  He emphasised the role of the financial services in boosting UK growth, particularly their investment in digital technology and the need to simplify systems of working.  He described how sustainable finance was achieving the transition to net zero.  The City had a pivotal role in insurance, protecting against project failure. Sustainable finance was at the heart of economic development.  The UK was the first G7 country to require ESG (environmental, social, and governance) resilience, a leader in sustainable finance, creating new jobs, new markets and driving new technologies.

The Rt Hon Sir Alok Sharma MP (COP 26 President), pictured above, reminded us that 200 countries attended COP26 and reaffirmed the Paris Agreement goal of limiting the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5 °C.  He noted that temperatures had already risen by 1.2 °C and climate change was affecting every part of the world. Wild fires were seen in the UK. It was affecting water availability, food, fuel and housing security.  Emissions of greenhouse gases need to be cut by 43%.  We need to speed up change: shift to electric cars, treble our renewable energy production capacity and phase out fossil fuels.  A global stock take shows that we are way off target on climate change and delivering net zero.

After these energised presentations during the mingling, I had various very interesting conversations with Livery and Corporation colleagues.  They included the use of water in firefighting, the importance of providing more green and blue spaces in our towns and cities, raising awareness of and promoting green energy, the green belt, and the role of and sharing ideas across the Livery.

It was a fascinating evening during which I learnt much and left with my head spinning (alcohol free).

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