Mr. Mark Carney, UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance

Mr. Mike Bloomberg, UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Climate Ambition and Solutions Global Ambassador for UN Race to Zero and Race to Resilience campaigns

Dear Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Carney,

We are writing to you to ask for your and your members’ climate leadership, as Co-Chairs of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ).

Fueled by the atrocious Russian war on Ukraine, raging on for over three months, the world is facing threats to energy security on top of food and climate crises. In order to respond, we must end fossil fuel expansion and rapidly accelerate investments in renewable energy which, according to the International Energy Agency and the UN Secretary General, must triple to over $4 trillion annually by 2030

This investment need is critical everywhere, although a targeted approach is also needed to support countries that urgently need to transition away from fossil fuels.

In order to demonstrate the GFANZ members’ commitment to the net zero transition, and energy security in Europe and beyond, we are formally requesting that you:

• Publicly commit GFANZ and push members to announce concrete investment pledges, timetables and plans for meeting these clean energy investment needs by COP27.

• Publish how you intend to accomplish one of your core workstreams: “Mobilizing capital to EM&DEs: Accelerating the deployment of capital to enable emerging markets and developing economies to decarbonize and prosper in a global net-zero economy.” Use your advocacy power to urge EU and national authorities to adopt meaningful taxonomies that exclude all fossil fuels.

• Declare GFANZ’s commitment to the IEA net-zero scenario and require GFANZ members to stop financing new oil, gas, and coal supply, consistent with this scenario. Note that the scenario requires a phase-down of fossil fuel production, and not, as has recently been claimed in a seeming attempt to distract from the need to stop financing fossil expansion, an immediate end to all fossil fuel supply.

The UN World Meteorological Organization’s new State of the Global Climate report shows the devastating signs of humanity’s impact on the planet. We are breaking new climate records which are bringing long-lasting effects, wreaking a heavy toll on human life and hundreds of billions in damages. As United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, the report is "a dismal litany of humanity's failure to tackle climate disruption". These impacts will not be put on pause as we deal with roiling global energy markets. Instead they continue to accelerate.

Meanwhile, the invasion of Ukraine by Russian Federation forces under the direction of Vladimir Putin is a blatant attack on Ukraine's sovereignty and independence, a grave violation of human rights, international law, and global peace and a direct threat to global energy security. It is clear that the Russian war machine has been funded, fed, and fueled by the coal, oil and gas industries. Moreover, it has exacerbated a global cost of living crisis given the world’s over-reliance on expensive, volatile, and unreliable fossil fuel supplies.

The need for clean energy investment to address these crises is particularly acute in Europe. Estimates differ, but up to $800 billion is needed to eliminate Europe’s reliance on Russian fossil fuels altogether. While many GFANZ members have committed to exiting Russian fossil fuels in response to Putin’s unjust invasion of the Ukraine, none have publicly committed to the clean energy investment at the scale required to help Europe end that reliance once and for all.

But it’s not just Europe struggling with the fallout of Putin’s war of aggression and our overreliance on fossil fuels. The world is facing a global food crisis, and many countries around the world are dealing with their overreliance on fossil fuels and skyrocketing prices. We need financial institutions, and every member of GFANZ, to immediately commit to a clear timetable to contribute their fair share to the more than $4 trillion that the IEA, backed up by the UN Secretary General, has said is required for the world to transition to clean energy. If we act now, a different tomorrow is possible. The climate crisis is here, and the horrific invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces is yet more proof that fossil fuels are hurting us, now.

Financial institutions need to stop fueling the expansion of fossil fuels and, as proposed by the UN Secretary-General, massively increase the investments going towards a clean, affordable, accessible, peaceful and fair future.

Now we need your leadership. We look forward to your response.

Signed,

Svitlana Romanko