Wall Street goes green ahead of sustainable finance event

The date of a Wall Street conference that will discuss investment opportunities in the field of impact investing, renewable energy and energy efficiency finance has been announced.

The Wall Street Green Summit was set up by the chair of environmental finance firm Global Change Associates Peter Fusaro in 2002 and has rapidly become a key green finance event.

The 13^th edition of the event will kick off in New York City on March 31 and will feature a wide range of speakers discussing various topics related to sustainable finance, such as clean energy, impact investing, green banks, corporate sustainability and green funds.

Law firm Alston & Bird said about the event, “The Wall Street Green Trading Summit is without question the highest quality conference of its type. The speakers were spot-on, and the conference was extremely professionally run.”

The latest developments in financing clean energy project, such as crowdfunding, and the challenges of impact investing will also be discussed during the event.

“While impact investing is gaining momentum, there are still issues remaining including scalability, the lack of appropriate capital across the risk-return spectrum and shortage of high-quality investment opportunities”, said the organisers.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon said that private investors play a crucial role in the transition to a low-carbon economy.

In August last year, a study found that returns from ethical investment were 6% higher than those deriving from mainstream non-ethical funds.

Further reading:

Al Gore: world risks creating carbon bubble akin to financial crisis

The sustainable investment tipping point is now

Ban Ki-moon: green investors have the ‘power and responsibility’ to transform economy

Ethical investment: better a diamond with a flaw, than a pebble without

The Guide to Sustainable Investment 2013