The Zero-Hour Sessions: Deploying capital in the age of planetary boundaries

Day five of COP26 saw Lombard Odier's Zero-Hour Sessions draw to a close with our fifth and final event. Hubert Keller, Senior Managing Partner, Lombard Odier, moderated a panel discussion on the Session's theme: 'Deploying capital in the age of planetary boundaries'.

In this incisive conversation, David Blood, Co-Founder and Managing Director at Generation Investment Management, discussed the particular urgency of funding the climate transition. Mark Carney, the UK Prime Minister's Finance Advisor for COP26 and UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance, emphasised the need for frameworks that can help investors deploy capital in ways that are aligned with respecting planetary boundaries. Jeremy Oppenheim, Founder and Senior Partner at Systemiq, explained why the food and agriculture sector has the potential to play a significant role in returning us to our planetary boundary 'safe zones'. And Faith Ward, Chief Responsible Investment Officer for Brunel Pension Partnership and Chair of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change; spoke about the increasingly prominent role of public awareness in driving change.

Professor Dr Johan Rockström, Joint Director at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, also spoke at the Session. In his opening remarks, Professor Rockström focused on the planetary boundary that is the primary focus of COP26: climate change. “We arrived at COP26 in the knowledge that we're on track to hit at least 2.7 degrees of warming, which would put us squarely in the disaster zone,” said Professor Rockström. “Science-based targets, like the planetary boundaries framework, can guide the trajectories we need.”

Watch the full replay of our planetary boundaries here: