Women are on the front lines of climate change — so let them steer the response
After years of working in the finance sector on both gender and sustainable finance initiatives, I am convinced that more women at the top would help create a more just, innovative and ambitious response to climate change.
My experiences include: co-founding an impactful gender equality initiative for a large investment bank; working with executive teams on signing the UK government’s Women in Finance Charter; and handling the global launch of the world’s largest banking commitment to net zero emissions.
They showed me that women taking the lead on the front lines, at the policy level and across the financial industry can be key to accelerating action.
Women in Business essay competition
This article is an edited version of the winning entry to the FT’s 10th annual essay competition, organised with the 30% Club and Henley Business School, to win a free executive MBA place. The full essay question was: “Would efforts to tackle climate change benefit from more women taking the lead?”
The judges were:
Elise Buckle, Climate and Sustainability; Katy Jarratt, SpencerStuart; Evelina Olago, Just Climate; Ana Graca, Henley Business School; Laura Whitcombe, 30% Club; and Harriet Arnold, FT Project Publishing
The ‘front lines’
Climate change is a planet-wide crisis. Rising sea levels, sweeping wildfires and soaring temperatures will affect all humans. But not all humans will be affected equally. Variations in wealth, location, age and gender all affect the extent of the impact. The poor, marginalised and most vulnerable will suffer the most. Among the world’s poorest are women.
One exception is the field of sustainable finance, where women are relatively well-represented and often found in leadership positions. Data is scarce, but having worked across the more than 300 banks committed to the UN Principles for Responsible Banking and/or the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, I have observed a higher proportion of women in ESG decision-making roles compared to the financial industry average of only 22-24 per cent women in leadership roles, estimated by Deloitte, the professional services firm, in late 2021.
This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Tax Cognition
