In the UK we face a triple threat of climate change, energy scarcity and cost of living crisis. What did the Spring Statement mean for climate action? How do we unlock the superpower in our pensions? We spoke to Simon Mundy, Moral Money Editor at the Financial Times and author of The Race for Tomorrow, Kenneth Green, Campaigns Manager at Make My Money Matter and Alex Smith, Senior Associate at Eversheds Sutherland.
Our guests:
Kenneth Green is a campaigner specialising in climate change and deforestation, but also with experience in air pollution, housing and youth campaigning.
Prior to Make My Money Matter, Kenneth worked as a campaigner at Shelter, helping develop their campaigner strategies for the 2019 General Election as well as shape their response to the coronavirus crisis. Before that he worked at Unicef UK where he led their policy work on air pollution as well as heading up their internal trade union.
Outside of work, Kenneth has been heavily involved in environmental politics, co-chairing London Young Greens and coordinating campaigns for his local Green Party. He is also involved with UN climate campaigning, attending COP23 and COP26, while also helping coordinate the Adaptation Group for the UNFCCC youth cohort.
Kenneth is a proud Glaswegian, something he won’t stop talking about, and is a huge and long-suffering fan of Scottish sports. He starred in a Glasgow City Council green education video when he was 12 years old, and feels his surname has been instrumental in getting him where he is today.
Her recent experience includes:
– £350 million sustainability-linked refinancing for a FTSE 100 listed component manufacturer, acting for a syndicate of lenders;
– £450 million sustainability bond issuance for a national housing and care provider, being the first issuance of its kind in the sector, acting for the issuer;
– Financing of UK based consumer electric car hire business, acting for the lender;
£1 billion refinancing of a large telecoms and services provider, cited as one of the largest private credit financings in Europe, acting for the borrowers; and financing the purchase of a portfolio of onshore wind farms across the UK and Ireland in a £50m deal, acting for the borrower.
Simon Mundy is Moral Money Editor at the Financial Times and the author of Race for Tomorrow: Survival, Innovation and Profit on the Front Lines of the Climate Crisis. He began his reporting career in Johannesburg, where he covered Southern Africa for the FT before a period writing on the London financial sector. He then spent seven years in Asia, heading the FT bureaux in Seoul and Mumbai – before two years travelling across six continents to research Race for Tomorrow, his first book.
Links:
Simon Mundy’s book Race for Tomorrow
“In this extraordinary journey through 26 countries, Simon Mundy meets the people on the front lines of the climate crisis, showing how the struggle to respond is already reshaping the modern world – shattering communities, shaking up global business, and propelling a groundbreaking wave of cutting-edge innovation.”
Make My Money Matter 21x Challenge
Make My Money Matter Deforestation Petition
Make My Money Matter – email your pension provider about Ukraine