Don't Mess with Nature - Don't Mess with Nature: Banking on Nature

Don't Mess with Nature: Banking on Nature

12/15/20 • 23 min

Banking on Nature is a tale of two banks, in fact a tale of two governors of the Bank of England, the first and the last. The story starts with the first governor of the bank of England, a man called William Paterson and his disastrous Darien colony in Panama, the remains of which were uncovered as part of a scientific and archaeological exploration I joined as a young explorer. William Paterson didn't bank on nature, and it cost him dearly. But the last governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney did. His global Task Force for Climate-related Financial Disclosures together with Michael Bloomberg as chairman launched in December 2015 as a fantastic Christmas present to the planet and made it vital for the finance sector to report on the climate liabilities in their portfolios. By putting climate disclosure as a requirement, voluntary for the finance sector, it forced people to start thinking about climate change seriously. Because unless we change the movement of money, we're going to continue to finance ourselves into extinction. And in this podcast, you'll hear about how a new task force, the Task Force for Nature-related Financial Disclosure began and gathered momentum and will, we believe, be another vital gift for our planet.

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Previous Episode

Measuring Footprints

Did you know that each elephant's footprint has a unique pattern which can be used to identify individuals? In the natural world, evolution tends to make animals bigger, But even the biggest creatures, like elephants, can be extraordinarily gentle with their footprint. In the financial world size matters too. Banks and financial institutions are all getting bigger. In fact, there's a fascinating statistic that the largest 1% of the world's financial houses manage over 60% of total industrial assets. Can you imagine the concentration of power that means?

So what kind of a footprint does finance have? And how can we make finance gentle with its footprint around the world? Impact investing which is focused on producing a social and environmental impact while also generating a profit has gathered a lot of attention in recent years. But how do we transition into impact investments that produce a purpose?

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Next Episode

Don't Mess With Nature - The Equilibrium Paradox

In the 10th episode of 'Don't Mess With Nature', Andrew Mitchell explores the equilibrium paradox. Can natural capital and financial capital ever exist in balance when we're driven by the model of more? Don't economies only work if they get bigger and bigger? And can you really have constant growth in a finite world or, as Sir David Attenborough famously said, 'Anyone who thinks that you can have infinite growth on a planet with finite resources is either a madman or an economist.'

Buckle up for this podcast episode, where Andrew will take you on a conversational expedition into the heart of the rainforest, to find out what lessons we can learn from nature about creating a steady state that will allow our economies and our planet to keep on going. An equilibrium between natural capital and financial capital.

As a sustainable finance advisor to governments and banks and one of the original founders of the Taskforce for Nature-Related Financial Disclosure, you'll hear the latest insights into sustainable finance strategies, all given vivid colour with incredible stories from his life as an explorer and zoologist. Stay tuned for Andrew's tales of being one of the first to climb to the top of the rainforest canopy as well as surviving a shipwreck in shark-infested waters, and at the conclusion, a story from Davos and the World Economic Forum, where reimagining a new way of putting eco back into the economy is firmly on the agenda. Listen in to this fascinating episode to find out what it will take to create what we all need - wealth that's worth having.

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