As part of our focus on financing Birmingham’s just transition to net Zero, Footsteps helped organise a Finance and Investment Round Table to address two specific question
- How do we mobilise finance and investment in the delivery of Birmingham’s net zero ambition, and the improvement of the lives of all those who live in the city?
- How can we mobilise finance and investment to be the servants of a fair transition to a zero-carbon economy?
The Round Table was chaired by Liam Byrne, MP with contributions from Cllr Waseem Zaffar (Taskforce chair), Professor Nick Robins (LSE Grantham Institute), Rufus Grantham (Bankers Without Boundaries), Chris Naylor (Interim Birmingham Chief Executive) and Cllr Lisa Trickett.
The Round Table brought together bankers, finance specialists, officers and Taskforce members to explore how finance and investment can be mobilised to help deliver Birmingham’s net zero ambition and the improvement of the lives of all those who live in the city. The Round Table was told that there is a ‘wall of money’ looking to be invested in sustainability projects. Projects need, though, to be packaged in a way that investors can understand, assess the risks involved and match with investors’ objectives. This will require learning from prototypes, developing intermediary structures and the Council putting in place the capability to deliver a stream of projects at pace.