• Achim Steiner
    "Combining private sector financial flows and smart public policy will be a key to a low carbon, resource efficient 21st century Green Economy."
     
    Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive Director
  • Gordon Brown
    "By kick-starting this engagement on issues of systemic risk and financial sustainability with the United Nations community, my hope is to contribute to defining the new kind of thinking and action that we must embrace to address the challenges of a global economy when climate change, resource scarcity, commodity price volatility and income inequality, amongst other ongoing concerns, will set the future context for our finance sector and global capital markets."
     
    Gordon Brown, former UK Prime Minister
  • Mary Robinson
    "The UN framework affirms that all businesses have a responsibility to respect human rights and that all must be able to demonstrate that they are meeting this responsibility through due diligence and positive actions irrespective of local contexts and government capacities. Many companies still have a great deal of work to do to make human rights due diligence part of their operations and to ensure that at minimum, their actions do not undermine respect for rights and indeed contribute to realizing rights in people’s lives."
     
    Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland
  • Barbara Krumsiek
    "I look forward to welcoming key stakeholders from around the world to Washington, D.C. for the UNEP FI Global Roundtable. My hope is that the event will build the critical partnerships that are necessary to move the sustainable development agenda forward."
     
    Barbara J. Krumsiek, Calvert Investments President and CEO, UNEP Finance Initiative Co-Chair
  • Kai Buntrock
    “I expect a truly catalytic reaction as to the felt and understood necessity of policy makers for placing the discussion on a sustainable policy framework - targeting the future private sector mobilisation and involvement - centre stage!”
     
    Kai Buntrock, Senior Investment Manager, DEG
  • Yvo de Boer
    “I hope the UNEP FI conference will explore best practice in ESG-investing, particularly in the US where we see new levels of interest from mainstream investors. The step change for companies is recognizing that investors have a valid interest in understanding how these issues are being managed across multiple asset classes.”
     
    Yvo de Boer, KPMG’s Special Global Advisor on Climate Change and Sustainability
  • Ernst Rauch
    "Munich Re is particularly looking forward to the expert workshop on climate information services for financial institutions at the UNEP FI’s Global Roundtable 2011. We appreciate the establishment and work of climate information centres, as reinsurance companies would benefit from the broader financial services and insurance sector. This would enhance the overall resilience of the entire sector in light of climate change impacts."
     
    Ernst Rauch, Head of Climate Change Centre, Munich Re
  • Nassim Taleb
    "Owing to [...] misunderstanding of the causal chains between policy and actions, we can easily trigger Black Swans thanks to aggressive ignorance - like a child playing with a chemistry kit."
     
    Nassim Taleb, author of The Black Swan

About the Global Roundtable

The 2011 Global Roundtable, held in Washington D.C. on 19-20 October 2011, was a high-level conference that attracted a select group of 600 plus sustainable finance and responsible investment leaders and thinkers for an intensive, two-day dialogue.

 

Held in the run-up to the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, UNEP FI’s 13th Global Roundtable cast a spotlight on the global sustainable development agenda from the perspective of the financial sector players.

 

This 2011 edition of the Global Roundtable was held under the theme “The Tipping Point: Sustained stability in the next economy.”

 

Speakers included:

 

• Gordon Brown, Former UK Premier and current Member of Parliament;

• Mary Robinson, President, Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights & former President of Ireland

• James Balsillie, co-CEO of Research in Motion and member of the UN High Level Panel for Global Sustainability;

• Achim Steiner, Under Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of UNEP.

  

The 13th Global Roundtable 

 

UNEP FI’s 13th Global Roundtable came at a crucial time for the international community, with the financial crisis offering a stark reminder that instability constantly looms over the horizon when issues of sustainability are overlooked in day-to-day financial operations.  

 

Held under the theme “The Tipping Point: Sustained stability in the next economy,” UNEP FI’s 13th Global Roundtable postulated that the decades-long niche discussion over sustainability has finally become part of mainstream business and policy-making. The tipping point, in other words, has been crossed, and there is no turning back.  

 

Building on that premise, the 13th Global Roundtable conference programme brought in one place the men and women who have produced the most forward-looking thinking in the global finance and investment community. It offered guests and speakers a unique opportunity to probe and debate the new common business opportunities and challenges that exist in a post-financial crash environment, network among peers, and find inspiration to position themselves ahead of competitors in a changing economy.

 

 

Why Washington D.C.?

 

Being in Washington D.C. represents a unique opportunity for UNEP FI to create a dialogue between the financial community and the policy-makers. Ahead of the Earth Summit, UNEP FI’s Global Roundtable created a space for CEOs, heads of sustainability and risk departments to discuss the most pressing issues in sustainable development with representatives from environment, energy and finance ministries (or their equivalent).

 

 

The history of the Global Roundtables

 

Since the success of the first Global Roundtable edition, held in 1994 in Geneva, Switzerland, Global Roundtables have matured into major global agenda-setting events.    

 

Global Roundtables offer an opportunity for leaders of the financial world and environmental experts to come together to discuss and exchange views on sustainability issues and responsible financing. They have significantly contributed with ideas on how to address emerging environmental, social and governance challenges that relate to the global financial industry. In addition, the summit has been one of UNEP FI’s foremost advocacy instruments.  

 

Fifteen years on, Global Roundtables carry-on a well-established tradition that has spanned the globe from New York to Frankfurt, Rio de Janeiro to Tokyo.