8,000 Titanics of melting ice a day: sustainability events in 2019

BNP Paribas' sustainable events in 2019 discussed everything from transition finance and ESG to the UN PRBs and PPAs. Here is why it matters.

Learning that a volume of ice the size of the Titanic is melting every 10 seconds in the Antarctic was perhaps one of the most salient facts we learnt the past year. This means more than 8,000 Titanics of ice a day. At 269 metres long, up to 28 metres wide and 32 metres in height from base of the keep to the top of the bridge, that is a lot of melting ice. (The length of the Titanic alone could fit almost 30 London double-decker Routemaster buses, or almost four of Airbus’s vast A380 passenger aircraft.)

Craig Leeson, an award-winning documentary-maker and Global Sustainability Ambassador at BNP Paribas, revealed this startling fact at the BNP Paribas’ Sustainable Future Forum (SFF) 2019 in Singapore, the bank’s fourth, one of several high-profile events BNP Paribas Corporate & Institutional Banking hosted over the past year.

BNP Paribas sustainability events in 2019 and 2020

“Learning that a volume of ice the size of the Titanic is melting every 10 seconds in the Antarctic was perhaps one of the most salient facts we learnt the past year.”

Whether it was SFF at Climate Week NYC, SFF SingaporeSFF in Abu Dhabi or EnR Enterprises Conference in Paris, BNP Paribas has gathered together some of the world’s leading investors, borrowers and policymakers to discuss everything from transition finance and the United Nations Principles for Responsible Banking (UN PRBs) to corporate purchase power agreements (PPAs) and the challenges ahead in ESG investing.

At a more local level, BNP Paribas was also active. In Madrid, the bank hosted an event in October on the impact of the new EU Taxonomy in Madrid, with Helena Viñes, Deputy Sustainability Director at BNP Paribas Asset Management and member of the European Commission’s Technical Expert Group, sharing her views with financial directors from Spain’s largest companies. In Prague, BNP Paribas worked with the French Institute to organise the Eko-Logika festival in October and November, as part of a broader programme on climate change awareness.

A mindset shift. A paradigm shift.

When the CEO of the world’s largest asset manager talks about being “on the edge of a fundamental reshaping of finance”, it is clear that sustainable finance is not just a flash in the pan. The structure of global finance and the world economy is undergoing a paradigm shift. This could lead to a radical reallocation of capital in the global economy.

BNP Paribas is in the vanguard of this shift and is leading the conversation on everything from sustainability-linked loans to transition bonds.