Five Insights From The Verdantix 2024 EMEA Climate Summit

Five Insights From The Verdantix 2024 EMEA Climate Summit
Just four days after COP29 ended with an intricate finance deal that was criticized by many as ‘not enough’, Verdantix hosted the 2024 EMEA Climate Summit in London. With over 150 professionals from the sustainability sector in attendance, the summit was a far cry from the vague promises and commitments of COP29 and many other sustainability summits, instead choosing to focus on the practical challenges and proposed solutions to tackling the climate crisis within organizations. The event featured panels from leaders at the Climate Action Coalition, Pledge, Phoenix Group, EY, Wolters Kluwer and many others. While speakers highlighted macro-trends such as the need for better data availability at a granular level and the persistent scalability issues of many climate solutions, the summit also uncovered five nuanced and thought-provoking insights:
- The big picture: understanding climate through a broader lens.
Keynote speaker Rt Hon Chris Skidmore OBE opened the summit by emphasizing a focus on the big picture following the failures of COP29, reminding the audience that the macro-economics supporting climate action have not changed. Elliot Whittington from the Cambridge Institute of Sustainability Leadership (CISL) went on to underline how businesses must focus on the real-world impacts of climate change, ensuring that they don’t lose sight of broader, indirect effects that climate impacts can have. He used the example of a drought in Brazil driving up energy costs due to a lack of hydropower capacity to reinforce this point. Organizations should avoid clinging too tightly to the current paradigms and instead adapt strategies to address long-term asset value and broader societal and geopolitical change. This will require balancing short-term priorities such as regulatory compliance with long-term goals, a shift that many speakers argued makes both environmental and business sense.
- Climate disclosures: obligation to opportunity.
Climate disclosures were an inescapable topic, with discussions underscoring their nature as both a compliance requirement and opportunity for improvement. Steven de Regter from BASF pointed out that current compliance systems – with layers of control processes – often multiply the workload for reasonable disclosure, creating additional operational strain. To move forward, work on disclosures must move beyond fear of fines or court action. Instead, J. R. Van Oder from EY argued that businesses should embrace honesty about setbacks and use this transparency to build trust and integrity. Disclosures can become a catalyst for better decision-making – not just a regulatory checkbox.
- Data collection: a means, not an end.
Persistent issues with data availability and quality remain a challenge for climate solutions. James Wilde from Phoenix Group highlighted the importance of reframing the role of data; rather than aspiring solely to collect high-quality granular data sets, businesses should view data as a tool to improve decision-making, understand climate impacts and prioritize future policies and investments. A panel by Peter Walsh and Kevin O’Neill from Benchmark Gensuite also delved into the role of AI, which presents both opportunities for advanced analytics as well as challenges related to power-sourcing and complex implementation. This balanced view of data helps shift focus away from challenges surrounding data quality and visibility to its application, aligning its use with actionable climate strategies.
- Nature: a rising priority in the climate conversation.
The phrase “nature is the new carbon” came up multiple times throughout the summit, with panels highlighting how many firms are looking to invest in biodiversity as part of their climate strategies. Protecting the natural world is not just an ecological imperative but also an economic one, given that half of global GDP depends on ecosystem services. Sandrine Ricard from Chivas Brothers/Pernod Ricard stressed the importance of integrating nature into the firm’s value chains, while Clare Freshwater-Turner from Lloyds Banking Group emphasized the need to bridge the gap between small-scale investment opportunities and the financial demands of big banks. Moreover, Paula Hermogenes from BAT described how achieving success in biodiversity preservation requires parallel efforts in climate action – particularly through fossil fuel divestment – as the two are deeply intertwined.
- Rethinking net zero: dilemmas about definitions.
Renée Lenore of Wolters Kluwer opened a panel on greenwashing by highlighting how understanding definitions is a key feature of successful climate policy. Speakers questioned the usefulness of ‘net zero’ as a term, with Catherine Greene from the Anthropocene Fixed Income Institute arguing its framing as an endpoint inherently imposes limitations and restrictions. While net zero has been a useful tool for setting goals, it risks narrowing the focus to emissions reductions alone, sidelining other critical priorities like biodiversity and the just transition. It might be time to reconsider its usefulness in maintaining momentum of climate strategies.