‘I am in awe of the approach taken today’: Over 150 bankers & campaigners attend Catalysing Bank Climate Action report launch
Jacqueline Lim is Fellowship Programme Manager - responsible for designing and launching the Climate Safe Lending Fellowship in conjunction with the Climate Safe Lending Network and the Finance Innovation Lab. Here, Jacqueline shares her write-up from the launch event for Catalysing Bank Climate Action: Lessons from the inside.
On 29 June 2022, the Climate Safe Lending Network (CSLN) and the Finance Innovation Lab (FIL) were joined by over 150 attendees from across the globe for the launch of our pioneering new report, Catalysing Bank Climate Action: Lessons from the inside. The report features key insights from our inaugural Climate Safe Lending Fellowship 2021/2022.
Attendees had a unique opportunity to hear directly from report co-authors, Lydia Hascott (Head of Intrapreneurship, FIL), Natalie Tucker (Fellowship Manager, FIL), and James Vaccaro (Executive Director, CSLN).
The event gave attendees the opportunity to be inspired by one of our 2021/2022 Fellows, who reflected on their personal experience on the Fellowship programme. They also shared the strategies they successfully deployed to facilitate a network of engaged colleagues to drive climate action across their bank.
The webinar provided a safe space for bankers and campaigners alike to learn about key barriers and enablers faced by climate intrapreneurs working internally to advance the transition to climate safe lending in their banks. Attendees were also given the opportunity to experience ‘Theory U’ first-hand - one of the key tools that Fellows worked with during the Fellowship.
Theory U - The Presencing Institute
In pausing to reflect on what was surfacing for them about the role they play in bank climate action - regardless of whether they worked inside or outside a bank - attendees shared the following responses:
“From the outside, the most effective thing I can do is support lobbying for regulation.”
“How do I build this into our strategic plan, build allies and educate the bank?”
“Individuals need to go on a ‘purpose journey’ first to build the right mindsets”
“[This is an] opportunity for me to improve at listening empathetically and figuring out personalized ways to communicate why climate work is important”
“How, as a campaigning organization, to scale the number of intrapreneurs at a bank and expand their impact, particularly when a big bank has 50,000+ employees?”
“How do we reconcile the bigger, long-term task of totally transforming banks’ culture with the urgent need for them to make the right decisions on lending to high-carbon industries?”