The way the City of London measures success is constantly changing.

A new generation of discerning customers have skyrocketed the importance of environmental, social and corporate governance to company decision-makers.

And the finance sector is increasingly being seen as the next frontier

in climate action. As the city navigates the post-Brexit landscape and our pandemic recovery,

it will also be tasked with redefining its role on the world stage. So how will the government's

net zero commitment and the targets in the Paris Agreement factor in to corporate decision-making?

How will banks and other financial institutions change how they weigh up sustainable investment choices?

And what impacts is all this going to have on the broader economy?

To discuss all of this and more, I'm joined by Alajones, head of sustainable investment

in Europe for the Futsi Russell, Kate Norgrove, Executive Director of Advocacy and Campaigns for

WWF, and Benedict McGallion, Senior Advisor on Energy and Environment for Policy Exchange.

And this panel is kindly sponsored by

WWF. So thank you very much for that. I'd like to start with Benedict. We're going to have a few

opening remarks from you and then from the rest of the panel and we'll dive right into questions.

So Benedict, kick us off. Thank you very much, Kate. And thank you very much to the spectator for

hosting us today and also to WWF for sponsoring this very important event and this very important summit.

I'm delighted to come and talk to you about the financial sector and its role in achieving global net zero.

And really, it has an absolutely key role.

In fact, we cannot get to where we want to go without it. And that's always been the case with the financial sector and human society.

Wherever there's been massive progress in human society over the last few centuries,

financial sector has been incredibly important. When Christopher Columbus

wanted to go across oceans, the only people who could finance that were royalty. And yet nowadays,

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