The Economics of Climate Change at COP26

At COP26—the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference—in Glasgow on 2 November 2021, one of the world leaders’ days, we presented our session, The Economics of Climate Change.

The aim of COP26 is to increase global alignment on climate action and our session, watched by the world’s governments, businesses, organisations and policymakers, demonstrated how economics can focus their efforts in tackling the climate challenge.

In our session, led by Oxera Partners Jostein Kristensen and Sahar Shamsi, we brought the Economics of Climate Change to life through the film lens as we heard from six guest CEOs and founders of some of the fastest-growing start-ups that are tackling the climate challenge. We explored what investors, economists and GreenTech start-ups are doing and facilitated a lively interactive discussion which illustrated how economics can provide the toolkit for harnessing the multi-disciplinary skills that will ultimately make decarbonisation possible.

Our session delved into solutions such as the use of worldwide geo-mapping of climate risk exposure to land and buildings and the harnessing of the power of the oceans for achieving decarbonisation. We also explored data driving carbon offset quality and ratings and supporting investors in the space now and in the future. We looked at the economics issues resulting from new innovative local low-carbon freight delivery systems, and at batteries that do not need recharging for decades. We demonstrated how economics is a study of positive trade-offs that is key to bringing vital solutions and technologies to market.

Oxera Partners Sahar Shamsi and Jostein Kristensen chaired our session, and the panel consisted of these great leaders and investors: