Women working in financial services are opening a new front in the battle against climate change, with the launch of a UN-backed initiative to take global warming concerns into business boardrooms.

 

Helena Morrissey, chief executive of Newton Investment Management and a long-time campaigner for women in boardrooms, is spearheading the new “Two Degrees of Change” initiative. Under it, women will be encouraged to raise climate issues with their company boards, and demand companies and investors take action to stave off the threat of dangerous warming.

 

The name comes from the pledge made by governments at the historic Paris climate conference in December to limit global warming to no more than 2C, which scientists say is the threshold of safety.

 

Morrissey, who set up the “30% Club” named for her target to see 30% of board seats in big companies going to women, told the Guardian: “This is about having more women in senior roles [in business] focusing on climate change and changing the narrative. We need female voices in our boardrooms on this.”

 

Shareholders would benefit, she said, as the risks of climate change are still poorly taken into account in many companies, and traditional financial services companies have yet to make the major changes likely to be necessary in strategy.

 

Morrissey added that many women were more aware of climate change as a pressing problem than men at the top of the financial services sector. “Women are often interested in these areas more than men, and interested in a long-term view,” she said. “Many women find themselves working within an established culture at old-fashioned companies.”

 

Forming a network dedicated to helping women would be beneficial for businesses as well as the climate, she said: “Women see how change can happen within their companies, but they need encouragement and empowerment to speak out.”

 

She was joined at the launch on Monday in London by Christiana Figueres, the UN’s climate chief who led the successful negotiations at Paris, and Rachel Kyte, former vice president of the World Bank leading on climate change and now senior representative for the UN on sustainable energy, as well as a roll-call of City women specialising in green issues. (The Guardian)

 

 

PHOTO: Helena Morrissey, chief executive of Newton Investment Management and founder of the 30% Club, will lead UN’s Two Degrees of Change initiative.

CREDIT: Martin Godwin for the Guardian.