building bridges.

Building Bridges Geneva aspires to amplify the effectiveness of policy making in Switzerland to accelerate the flow of private sector investment in line with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Authorities, international organisations, academics, companies and financial actors all have an important role to play in addressing the world's most significant challenges, from tackling climate change, addressing inequality and building a more sustainable economy.

shepherding the transition.

The goal of Building Bridges Geneva is to facilitate the shift to a global economic model that can fulfil the needs of a sustainable, just society, as outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Paris Climate Agreement, and other relevant national and international agreements. Building Bridges does this by discerning, advocating for and contributing to the execution of actions that, together, can realise that goal.

The Building Bridges initiative is founded on the understanding that the transition we need is so significant, and the actions required to deliver it so complex, that it cannot be achieved without the ‘building of bridges’ between numerous influential stakeholders in finance, government and sustainable development.

Although the Building Bridges Geneva summit is the initiative’s centrepiece, the project is far more than just an event. Building Bridges is a year-round force for good; a committed movement of people and organisations that is working to take sustainable finance to the next level worldwide and facilitate the shift to a new global economic model—one that can sustainably and fairly meet the needs and support the aspirations of every person, wherever they happen to live.
 

Switzerland, which hosts both a global hub for international collaboration and one of the world’s leading financial centres, is an ideal place for Building Bridges to call home. By basing itself in Geneva, Building Bridges is superbly positioned to engage with a wide range of stakeholders from the worlds of finance, the United Nations, international organisations, NGOs, academia, and local, cantonal & national authorities. In building bridges between this eclectic, influential diversity of groups and individuals, the project aims to turn their attention and talents toward a common goal: the development and application of sustainable finance to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

the summit.

To help build the bridges we need, the Building Bridges summit was established to maximise the collective impact of ‘Bridge Builders’ and bring key stakeholders together for a meaningful discussion on how to accelerate The Sustainability Revolution in a way that both reduces risks and creates investment opportunities for the private sector.

The first Building Bridges Geneva summit, held in 2019, was symbolically located on a bridge between International Geneva and Bâtiment des Forces Motrices, the city’s financial hub. As such, the summit was ideally located for a coming together of representatives from both sectors for a conversation on how to take their collective impact to the next level.

Our report "Predictors of Success in a Greening World" in collaboration with the University of Oxford offers a global, 25-year-long perspective on countries' standing in global trade in high-growth green industries, and the extent to which countries have adequately directed their Covid-19 recovery spending to “build back greener" efforts. Results on trade are augmented with an in-depth analysis of the global corporate landscape in wind and solar—two critical sources of energy for the climate transition that are cost-effective for consumers and offer high growth prospects to investors.