WEBINAR - The Prospects for Green Finance in the UK and Japan, with Roger Gifford and Mari Yoshitaka

Japan Society chairman Bill Emmott is joined to discuss the important issue of green and sustainable finance by two experts in the field: Roger Gifford, chair of the UK Green Finance Institute and a senior banker at SEB and Mari Yoshitaka, Principal Sustainability Strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting Co Ltd.

The Earth Day Leaders’ Summit on Climate on 22 & 23 April 2021 saw government after government committing to new and more ambitious emissions-reduction plans with the nearer-term target of 2030. While welcoming these moves, UN Climate Change has challenged leaders, in the run up to COP 26 in Scotland in November, to deliver vital finance commitments to turn these plans into actions, including on the US$100 billion goal in support of developing countries’ climate action.

How is the sector likely to develop, and will it succeed in driving what has been identified as a ‘post-pandemic green recovery’? What is the role of policies and regulations in scaling up sustainable finance and low-carbon infrastructure investments in Japan and the UK? What will it take to meet Japan’s and the UK’s 2030 targets?

Dr Mari Yoshitaka is Principal Sustainability Strategist, Deputy General Manager of Corporate Planning Dept., Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting Co Ltd (MURC). She joined Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities in 2000 to start up the Clean Energy Finance Committee, and transferred to MURC in May 2020. Her area of expertise is climate change policy, especially climate finance and mitigation projects, in the fields of ESG investment and SDGs business. Mari is a member of World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Japan, Financial Services Agency’s Expert Panel on Sustainable Finance, and the Cabinet Secretariat’s Expert Panel on Climate Change, amongst others.