Our upcoming event, GLOBExCHANGE (Feb. 27-Mar. 1, 2023) builds on our recently published 10×10 Matrix, which identifies the 10 areas where we need to take action in the next 10 years to get to net zero.
In our 10×10 Takes video series we’re talking with climate leaders who are working to advance these action areas. First up, let’s get down to business on Unlocking Innovation with MaRS Discovery District’s Senior Director of Cleantech, Tyler Hamilton.
GLOBE Series’ President, Elizabeth Shirt, is excited to get down to business and win the race to net zero at GLOBExCHANGE (Feb. 27-Mar. 1, 2023)! Explore new sessions added to the preliminary program, dive into the 10×10, and register by Dec. 15 to take advantage of Early Bird rates.
Earlier this month at COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, Canada hosted its first-ever Pavilion, featuring 200+ climate leaders and 80+ unique events that showcased the breadth and diversity of Canadian climate action. Hot on the heels of the world’s biggest climate summit, Canada’s Ambassador for Climate Change, Catherine Stewart, reconnected with GLOBE’s very own Elizabeth Shirt to reflect on key outcomes and challenges coming out of COP27, and what’s next for Canada at the COP15 Biodiversity Conference in Montréal (Dec. 7, 2022 – Dec. 19, 2022).
Join us in Toronto at GLOBExCHANGE (Feb. 27 – Mar. 1, 2023) to continue these vital conversations, invest in international collaboration, and exchange the solutions, skillsets, and dollars that will help advance Canada’s ambitious climate goals both at home and abroad: http://www.globexchange.ca/
The path to net zero will require hard work, creativity, and a whole lot of collaboration. To help fuel and shape this collaboration, we have distilled the key takeaways from GLOBE Forum 2022 into the 10 action areas we need to prioritize in the next 10 years to achieve net zero by 2050.
Over the next few months, we will be developing an interactive 10×10 Matrix that highlights the actions that governments, businesses, and NGOs can take to achieve this ambitious but urgent target. We hope the 10×10 Matrix will not only inspire action, but also help you to better understand how your actions are connected to and enable others in your ecosystem.
To ensure that the 10×10 Matrix is representative of the issues facing diverse stakeholder groups, we have engaged the Leading Change Steering Committee and other partners. Virtual GLOBE Forum delegates will also have the opportunity to provide input into the full matrix in the coming weeks
The 10×10 will come to life at GLOBExCHANGE – our next Destination Net Zero event, taking place in Toronto on February 27 – March 1, 2023. GLOBExCHANGE will build on the conversations at GLOBE Forum and use the 10×10 Matrix as a basis for driving meaningful change in pursuit of our net-zero goals.
Thank you to the GLOBE Advance session partners, and The Delphi Group’s expert facilitators, notetakers, and content reviewers.
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Are you thinking about offering an in-person, hybrid or virtual event, workshop or presentation? We can help!
For more information about how we can partner with you to deliver your next sustainability event, reach out to our Senior Manager, Event Partnerships, Caroline Vanasse, directly at caroline.vanasse@globeseries.com.
GUEST CONTENT
Recorded at GLOBE Forum 2022, this Net Zero Insights video features host John Stackhouse, Senior Vice-President, Office of the CEO from RBC in conversation with Susannah Pierce, Shell Canada’s President and Country Chair.
From the Prime Minister’s major net-zero announcement, to seeing all our favourite people back together for the first time in two years, the first day of GLOBE Forum 2022 was one for the books! Watch to hear from our very own Elizabeth Shirt, GLOBE Series’ Managing Director, and catch up on all the Day One highlights.
In April 2021, Manulife’s Global Chief Sustainability Officer, Sarah Chapman, participated in the Nature is Calling: Invest in Biodiversity or Bust? at GLOBE Capital. This session brought together leaders in this space to discuss the link between biodiversity and the economy, and how we can assess, stop and potentially capitalize on reversing nature loss.
We caught up with Sarah to learn more about how Manulife is creating value through the sustainable management of natural resource investments, biodiversity impacts on portfolio investments, and more.
The mission of Manulife Investment Management Timberland and Agriculture* is to create value through the sustainable management of natural resource investments. What does this look like in practice?
We are in a unique position with our timber and agriculture business: by investing in forests to create carbon sequestration, and other conservation opportunities derived from forests, we can have a positive climate impact.
We’re proud that Manulife is net zero in our operations. We achieved this through the carbon removals from our substantial forests and farmland outweighing our emissions. Manulife Investment Management’s global timberland portfolio team has removed an average of 1.38 million metric tons of CO2 annually by assets owned by Manulife’s general account.
*Manulife Investment Management’s diverse private markets businesses—including timberland and agriculture—have operated within the global wealth and asset management business for decades and recently Hancock Natural Resource Group has changed its name to Manulife Investment Management Timberland and Agriculture Inc.
You’ve recently created a new role of Managing Director, Impact Investing and Natural Climate Solutions at Manulife Investment Management Timberland and Agriculture Inc. to develop impact-first investment strategies. What have been the most promising/exciting opportunities to emerge, and how are your clients responding?
Timberland and agriculture investments can both serve as natural climate solutions, or investments that utilize nature’s own benefits to further climate, ecological and social goals.
The rapid expansion of private sector net-zero commitments and the continued evolution of public climate policies are increasing global attention and appetite for natural climate solutions and driving additional demand to global carbon markets.
Although both represent significant opportunity to generate competitive financial returns and a range of ecological and social benefits, forestry is currently further ahead than agriculture in terms of impact investing and natural climate solutions opportunities. Specifically, forest-carbon markets are well established, with a range of regulatory (compliance) and voluntary methodologies and protocols having evolved over time. Soil carbon also holds enormous promise to help achieve global climate goals and create value for investors, although consistent measurement applications and protocols are still developing.
Manulife is currently developing a Forest Climate Strategy (FCS) to provide clients with a scaleable solution to help meet their net-zero goals. The FCS will prioritize carbon sequestration and high-quality carbon credit generation via third-party validation, verification and registries in addition to adherence with MIMTA’s Carbon Principles that we adopted last year and are aligned with the Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets (TSVCM) Core Carbon Principles. Other impacts refers to other ecological and social benefits that the FCS will seek to support through long-term protection of high biodiversity and high conservation value land via conservation easement sales as well as non-timber activities like recreation leases and mitigation banking that can support local communities and the environment.
Current clients and investors—Manulife included—are actively developing net-zero goals and action plans, often with expert guidance from organizations like the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi). There is a rapidly growing recognition of the unique climate mitigation and sustainable investment role that timberland and agriculture investments can play in client portfolios. We are seeing new interest in these asset classes from a range of investors outside of our traditional client base.
How do you factor biodiversity implications into investment portfolios?
When it comes to investing in biodiversity, there’s a place for scientists: to measure, track, monitor, and verify the impacts and dependencies of investments. We need scientific measurements of species abundance, water quality, and soil carbon.
At Manulife Investment Management Timberland and Agriculture, our timber group employs wildlife biologists who prepare biodiversity indexes for the forests we manage. It’s why we have wildlife and biodiversity guidelines and policies that inform our research processes and how we build our portfolios.
On a more granular level, to ensure that all relevant ESG risks and opportunities are considered in a standardized way across every possible deal, our acquisition teams use our new SRI Toolkit. It has been developed to enable a consistent and structured approach to assessing the characteristics of an investment opportunity.
What impact have green bonds had on the debt market?
The rise of sustainable financing—in which proceeds are used exclusively to fund projects that bring about environment and/or social benefits—has been well documented. Green bonds, in particular, found favour with many investors, having hit an important milestone in September 2020 by crossing the US$1 trillion issuance mark globally since their introduction in 2007.
The impact of green bonds on the debt market continues to grow. Investors are interested in the ability to influence positive change through their investments. Green bonds provide transparency on the allocation of green finance and will hopefully provide transparency on what has been successful (or not), where more funds are needed, etc.
Until recently, knowledge of social bonds was mostly restricted to sustainability practitioners and the investment community; however, the COVID-19 outbreak changed all that. Social bond issuance globally in 2020 soared to more than US$160 billion, up from US$13.3 billion a year ago. The rationale behind the surge? Issuers—which include sovereigns, supranationals, and financial institutions—saw it as a means to help mitigate the socioeconomic impact of the pandemic.
Manulife was the first global life insurer to issue a green bond. The environmental benefit of the General Account’s low-carbon investments that underpin our green bond issuances amount to 150,000+ tonnes of CO2 avoidance. Sample investments include solar and wind energy in the U.S. and Canada as well as sustainably managed forests.
What could change the game in a positive way for impact-first investment strategies?
Public policy and private sector net-zero commitments are increasingly recognizing nature’s critical role in addressing climate change. There are three key factors that could help the supply of natural climate solutions and other impact investing opportunities proliferate and scale to meet this potential increased demand: improved pricing, standardization, and transparency.
Pricing ecological and social benefits that have historically been undervalued—or not valued at all—is critical to incentivize project developers and investors. Carbon markets—specifically for forest carbon sequestration—have developed and evolved over the past decades, although prices have historically been relatively low and volatile. As corporate net-zero commitments continue to increase and investors search for high-integrity, investable climate solutions at scale, demand and pricing for natural climate solutions that generate real, additional and durable carbon sequestration is expected to increase. Co-benefits—or ecological and social benefits beyond carbon sequestration—are already starting to demand price premiums when combined with recognized natural climate solution strategies, such as improved forest management and reforestation/afforestation. Placing a value on other impacts, such as supporting and expanding biodiversity, is quickly evolving in the footsteps of the carbon markets.
Standardization and transparency across diverse natural capital markets will be key to increasing investor and buyer confidence and could help channel capital at scale towards these solutions. For example, the Taskforce for Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets (TSVCM)—an international multi-stakeholder effort to develop standards, governance and transparency for the voluntary carbon markets—is helping a historically patchwork system of independent protocols, registries and opaque bilateral trades evolve into a more efficient market.
In addition to TSVCM and similar governance efforts, numerous climate and impact exchanges have been established in the last few years to address the market infrastructure needs of credit suppliers, buyers and intermediaries. Many exchanges and intermediaries have established standardized contracts that enable greater comparability across projects. Numerous research and data providers are shining a light on pricing and volume data that was previously difficult to obtain. With increased standardization and transparency, greater clarity on underlying credit quality—and confidence in tangible climate benefits—could follow.
What is the most important thing that investors need to know right now?
Investors need to understand that the enormous task of improving environmental, social, and governance norms is taking place at all levels of society, and the resulting changes will have profound implications for investors.
In turn, investors are increasingly intentional in their efforts to influence positive change. This intentionality is an evolution from previous forms of sustainable investing, which focused solely on the integration of sustainability factors into investment decisions. I think this positive momentum will continue, but investors will still need to navigate and manage increasing pressures from regulators and society to do more.
What is the 10×10?
It’s a framework we’re bringing to GLOBE Forum 2022 to drive action, impact and outcomes. How it works:
Why the 10×10?
We’re done talking about if, why or whether we need to get to net zero by 2050. Now it’s about the HOW. But 2050 still feels a long way off for some people, so the 10×10 is all about creating urgency and momentum for action in the next decade.
What we need to do is one thing…the 10×10 is also about who needs to do it, and creating accountability for specific actions. Here at GLOBE, we will hold ourselves accountable for tackling and further unpacking priorities at future GLOBE events. As we have for 30 years, we will bring people together in innovative ways to drive action, but we can’t do it alone. We’re calling on our partners to help us build a better future.
How can people get involved in the 10×10?
First of all, make sure you stick around for GLOBE Advance on March 31st to participate in a facilitated, hands-on discussion on the GLOBE program theme of your choice. In-person participants at GLOBE Forum 2022 will have the opportunity to choose from six action-oriented sessions on:
It’s an incredible opportunity to work with fellow leaders and practitioners from across North America to accelerate a net-zero future.
Second, make the most of your time while at Forum. Use the networking and think spaces, the program sessions, and the Marketplace to connect and collaborate with our unparalleled community. The beauty of GLOBE Forum is the big tent, and we need all of you to share your ideas if we’re going to get to net zero.
Finally, partner with us. The 10×10 journey doesn’t end with GLOBE Forum. We invite you to help us advance and accelerate any of the actions on the 10×10, whether it’s at a future GLOBE event or other type of activity. Let’s get ‘er done!
Participation in GLOBE Advance is included in your GLOBE Forum All-Access Pass. Attendees with Virtual Passes will have an opportunity to review the 10×10 summary report before it goes public.
Guest content by Christine Bergeron, President and CEO of Vancity.
As British Columbians begin to rebuild from the wreckage of the latest extreme weather event, it’s clear that the climate emergency is here. To prevent further warming that will result in even more catastrophic consequences for people and the planet, we need to focus our efforts and ingenuity on the transition to a net-zero economy. This transition was the focus of the most recent global climate summit, COP26, and will continue to be front and center in the decades leading up to 2050. There are tremendous economic upsides to getting it right: a trillion-dollar economic opportunity, new jobs, and a boon for innovative solutions and products.
It’s clear that the climate crisis, and the actions we take to address it, affect every one of us. But not everyone is affected equally. As we build our net-zero future, it is critical to consider what human shape this economic transition will take. We’ve seen this movie before. Following the 2008 recession, the economy rebounded quite strongly. People? Not so much. Many were left jobless or in worse jobs than before the recession. Wages eroded and debt levels skyrocketed while housing became increasingly unaffordable for many.
We can’t allow this to happen again, especially since the reverberations of this transition are going to last longer than any recession. We won’t be successful if people are alienated from the climate fight because they pay a hefty price for the transition – for example, those who are already economically disadvantaged, or people and communities whose livelihood depends on emissions-heavy industries that we must now turn away from.
Canada, in particular, must be mindful of addressing the human costs of a net-zero transition. A recent study found that sectors vulnerable to the impact of this transition account for 70% of Canada’s exports, and more than $300bn in export revenues and investments. In human terms, that translates to 800,000 Canadian jobs located in every province and territory.
Those are just the employment impacts. Not everyone has the same ability to withstand the impacts and adapt to the new net-zero “normal.” We can’t successfully transition to a net-zero economy if only those who can afford to adapt make it through the transition intact.
A People-First Approach to Net Zero
We have to approach the net-zero transition through a people-first lens. What does this mean? It means identifying how the climate emergency, and our responses to it, are impacting people – for example, workers and communities relying on high-emissions sectors. It means understanding how existing systemic barriers and inequities make those impacts worse for some people, or limit their ability to mitigate and adapt – for example, lower-income people living in higher-risk neighborhoods because those same climate risks are making homes there more affordable. And it means having a plan of action for governments, businesses, unions, and communities to work together to address this head-on.
In Canada, a people-first approach is especially critical in the energy sector, traditionally a key driver of Canada’s economy. It’s clear we must transition most of our energy production to clean-energy sources. Prime Minister Trudeau announced at COP26 that “Canada has set a goal of selling only zero-emission cars and establishing a net-zero emissions electricity grid by 2035.” Arguably this is not soon enough based on global warming projections, and yet is also very aggressive based on how long it has taken to make major industry shifts in the past.
Converting Energy Risks to Opportunities in Canada
Renewables currently provide only about 16% of Canada’s total supply of energy for electricity, heating and transportation. While that’s a higher proportion than what we see globally (13.4%) or in OECD countries (10.5%), it demonstrates just how much change needs to occur in order to meet our international commitments and to truly shift to a net-zero economy.
There’s a similar mix of room for change and potential for growth in clean-energy exports. The global renewable energy market had total revenues of $692.8bn (USD) in 2020, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.9% between 2016 and 2020. Canada’s clean-energy exports totaled only $21bn in 2019. This represents an annual growth rate of 9.7% since 2014, three times faster than all Canadian product exports over the same period. But clean-energy exports still totaled only 5.5% of Canada’s product exports in 2019.
There is a clear opportunity for the Canadian economy as it begins to wean itself off oil and gas. Industry advocates expect that by 2030, Canada’s clean-energy sector will grow its GDP by 58% and its workforce by nearly 50%, adding more than 200,000 jobs. This growth will help offset the effects of oil-and-gas contraction at the macro level.
The question is, can Canada translate this growth into real opportunities for those people and communities who are no longer able to rely on oil and gas for their livelihoods, such as oil-and-gas workers, equipment suppliers and other local service providers? How do we reskill these individuals to capitalize on the new job opportunities? And how do we ensure that groups that were historically left out of the oil-and-gas boom, such as First Nations members and women, are included in the new energy growth opportunity?
There needs to be a deliberate effort on the part of governments, the private sector, workers and communities to make this transition fair – and successful. Re-skilling initiatives and building worker awareness of their transferable skills have been developed by both unions and non-union organizations, such as Iron & Earth. Scaling up and fully resourcing such initiatives will require collaboration between governments and employers.
Ensuring that Canada’s clean-energy future proceeds through true partnership with Indigenous peoples is also critical to advancing both the just transition and Reconciliation. The clean-energy sector is increasingly recognizing this. As of Nov 11, 2021, Indigenous Clean Energy (ICE) – a pan-Canadian social enterprise working to advance Indigenous inclusion in Canada’s energy futures economy – has mapped 197 clean-energy projects across Canada that have significant Indigenous involvement. ICE notes that these projects are generating jobs and training opportunities for Indigenous people, and providing a more consistent flow of revenue to meet community needs.
The Role of Financial Institutions in the Net-Zero Transition
It is imperative that financial institutions change what they fund. This means transitioning from emissions-heavy industries to cleaner jobs and industries, as well as factoring climate risks and social benefits into the assessment of loan requests and investment decisions. Financial institutions can also do more to support businesses in identifying and disclosing climate-related risks.
The climate crisis also requires that financial institutions put people first. This means helping people access and manage their finances when forced from their communities by severe climate events, such as the recent flooding in Merritt and Princeton or the forest fire at Lytton. Financial institutions can also use the tools at their disposal to encourage just-transition initiatives and lead systemic change.
For example, we introduced Canada’s first Responsible Investment (RI) mutual fund 35 years ago, and we became the first financial institution in North America to be carbon neutral in our operations nearly 15 years ago. Today, RI is an entrenched component of the investment world, and significant reductions in operational emissions are part of most large Canadian banks’ climate-action plans. We continue to finance changemakers in areas such as affordable housing, green technology, equity, and financial inclusion.
These examples highlight how the private sector can show leadership in support of a just transition. But more support is required. Systemic challenges need system-wide solutions, and such solutions require governments to also step up and lead, putting people first. That is the next key step for the just transition.
We are at the beginning of the most decisive decade in our lifetimes. What we do in the next 10 years will set the course for our net-zero future. To meet the moment, GLOBE Series launched Destination Net Zero Events—a three-event series culminating in GLOBE Forum 2022, the largest and longest-running sustainability conference in North America.
We’re embedding action and accountability into these events with the 10×10: 10 actions in 10 years we need to take to get to net zero. The actions identified in the Energy and Transportation Days event, which took place virtually October 26-27, 2021, are summarized in the 10×10 Outcomes Report. These outcomes will feed into the final 10×10 that is produced after Forum.