250 members of the London Accord community gathered at the Museum of London on 18 May for the eagerly anticipated Spring Conference on "Structuring Cleantech Investment".

Attendees were greeted warmly by Simon Mills, Head of Sustainable Development at the City of London Coporation. The rest of the afternoon was in three parts; Jason Langley's keynote speech on "Securitisation in Renewable Energy", the first panel discussing "Carbon Monitoring, Reporting and Investment", followed by the second discussing how to link-up "Regional Cleantech Investment". Michael Mainelli, Principal Advisor to the London Accord delivered the closing remarks, commenting on how far the initiative has come since 2005, and how necessary investment reports are for its continued success.

Highlights

Highlights from the afternoon included an extremely clear and informative walk-through securitisation by Jason Langley from AXA Investment Managers, concluding that (unlike nuclear and gas) although renewable energies pose a high upfront cost, they have very low variable costs once the technology is in place. This makes debt a good option for financing cleantech start-ups.

Hassen Bali, Vice President of Markit Environmental Registry, commented that through monitoring, reporting and investment of carbon, firms will enter a new realm of carbon compliance - with positive gains for both business and the environment.   

Martin Myerscough, pioneer of the 'GreenBottle' (using 75% less resources than the average plastic milk bottle and fully compostable/recyclable), asserting that if you want to get something done in the world of green entrepreneurship, you are better off doing it yourself.

Isabel Dedring, London Mayor's Environment Advisor, enlightened us with a pertinent cross-section analysis of society, when it comes to how much people are willing to do for the environment. The 20-60-20 ratio describes how 20% of people will happily make changes to their lifestyle and attune it to the eco-friendly 'mode du jour' (be it recycling, changing their applicances or turning the lights off). 60% of people will not make changes unless someone does it for them, for example, even if upgrading an appliance to a more energy efficient one is legislation, they will not do it until someone comes round to their house to do it for them. The remaining 20% will firecely oppose any kind of changes, and even if someone offers to, for example, place their used batteries in a recycling bin on their behalf, they will not allow that act of generosity.

The afternoon was filled with lively debate both among panelists and with the floor. Comments from attendees ranged from "too much faith in venture capitalists for carbon investment" to "too much red tape when it comes to basic cleantech change-overs, in this case, an aged household boiler."

After the conference attendees were invited to stay for a drink at the reception, where we could gaze at Didier Madoc-Jones' fabulous display of a taster for his forthcoming exhibition at the Museum of London entitled "London Futures II". The unsettling photo of London under the scenario of a six-meter rise in sea-level made a perfect backdrop for the day's events.

Autumn Conference

All that leaves for us to say is thank-you to all participants and attendees, and may we see you again for the Autumn Conference on Tuesday 12 October at the Museum of London addressing "Whose Brains? ESG Data and Intellectual Property"- watch this space for forthcoming details!