World Bank chief names CEOs to aid climate finance ‘lab’ effort

WASHINGTON: The World Bank on Monday named the 15 chief executive officers including financiers and asset managers who will make up a group launched by the lender’s president, Ajay Banga, to marshal more private capital to combat climate change.

The “Private Sector Investment Lab” will begin work in the coming weeks, initially focusing on expanding financing for the transition to renewable energy and associated infrastructure, the bank said in a statement released at a climate meeting in Britain attended by US President Joe Biden and King Charles.

Banga announced the initiative at a global finance summit in Paris last month alongside Mark Carney, the UN special envoy on climate action, and Shriti Vadera, chair of Prudential Plc. Monday’s announcement identified other participants.

The World Bank and the CEOs will work “to develop, test, implement and ultimately scale financing structures that can most effectively mobilize private capital,” Carney said in a statement.

The other CEOs are: Thomas Buberl of AXA; Larry Fink of BlackRock; Noel Quinn of HSBC; Shemara Wikramanayake of Macquarie; Hironori Kamezawa of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group; Hendrik du Toit of Ninety One; Jessica Tan of Ping An Group; Feike Sijbesma of Royal Philips; Sim Tshabalala of Standard Bank ; Bill Winters of Standard Chartered; Damilola Ogunbiyi of Sustainable Energy for All; Natarajan Chandrasekaran of Tata Sons; Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara of Temasek; and Mark Gallogly of Three Cairns Group.