The London Accord 2007 - Cash in, Carbon out
 The London Accord has been the largest cooperative project among investment research firms. During 2007 London Accord members conducted the largest-ever private-sector investment collaboration into climate change, representing work valued at £7 million ($15 million), and proved that society has a hunger for financial services research. Nineteen firms, ten of them investment banks or analytical firms, co-operated in the London Accord, an “open-source” research project with the theme of “cash in, carbon out”. This work resulted in a 24-report, 780-page guide, to investment for climate change – sponsored by the City of London Corporation, Forum for the Future, Gresham College, BP and Z/Yen – launched at Mansion House in London on 19 December 2007 before over 300 people. The presentation is available to download as a PDF (1mb).
Research providers included ABN Amro, Bank Sarasin, Barclays & Acclimatise, Canaccord Adams, Cheuvreux, Credit Suisse, Herbert Smith, JPMorgan Chase, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Société Générale and WestLB. Each provided a research teams gratis to make it all happen. Sponsors of the London Accord are BP, the City of London Corporation (the authority for the Square Mile business district), Forum for the Future, Gresham College and Z/Yen Group. Herbert Smith and Sustainable Forestry Management also contributed, as did institutions like the Cambridge Centre for Energy Studies, the Center on International Cooperation (part of New York University), the Climate Conservancy, the NextEarth Foundation and River Path Associates.
From this experience, and its enthusiastic reception from policy-makers (EU, Germany, US, Italy, France, Japan…), it is clear that more vigorous engagement by financial services people with policy-makers in international, trans-national, national and local government, as well as influential academics and think-tanks, would be welcomed. Z/Yen proposes to continue the London Accord momentum on climate change, but widened to include other issues of global risk and robustness, by providing a service of organising and sharing research from the financial services community with policy-makers.
The reports and associated information are available to download via the links below:
     
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