"Money is there" says U.N. climate envoy

U.N. climate envoy Mark Carney, told COP26 summit that US $100 trillion of investment must be available over the next three decades to fund the ongoing initiatives to cut emissions. 

"The money is here - but that money needs net zero-aligned projects and (then) there's a way to turn this into a very, very powerful virtuous circle - and that's the challenge," he told the summit.

Carney is the architect behind the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, which is an umbrella group that includes all the major Western banks, insurers and asset managers.

"We need blended finance facilities that don't mobilise fractions of private capital for the public dollar but multiples ... in double digits," he said. "There are facilities that are being developed that can do this; we need to scale them dramatically".

The Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero said in a statement on Wednesday that through the alliance  over $130 trillion of private capital is committed to transforming the economy for net zero.  "These commitments, from over 450 firms across 45 countries, can deliver the estimated $100 trillion of finance needed for net zero over the next three decades,” they said.

They added that major finance initiatives, led by Mark Carney as part of the private finance priorities for COP26, “will help transform the financial architecture by mainstreaming and scaling: climate-related reporting; climate risk management; climate-related investment returns and the mobilisation of private finance to emerging and developing economies”.