Capital for Climate: Making London the hub for green finance

By Roy Bedlow, Founder & Chief Executive, Low Carbon

As London Climate Action Week begins, there are daily signs of the climate emergency edging further into our daily lives. Extreme weather events are shaping economies, threatening ecosystems, and disrupting communities.

The effects are no longer theoretical, we are living them. Europe is now the fastest-warming region in the world, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), with four of Europe’s warmest years on record all occurring since 2020.

This is not simply an environmental emergency “The climate crisis is a health crisis. It’s already killing us – and without urgent action, it will get much worse,” as Dr. Hans Kluge, Regional Director of the World Health Organisation Office for Europe, starkly put the situation. The World Health Organisation state that a third of all heat-related deaths globally already happen in Europe.

Since founding Low Carbon in 2011, I continue to believe that solutions to the climate crisis demand urgency, ambition, and unity. Clean energy is an essential part to the solution, but for it to scale at the pace we need, finance must go hand-in-hand.

The technologies required to decarbonise our grids already and that’s why Low Carbon focuses on building new solar, wind, and battery storage as scalable, sustainable alternatives to fossil fuel.

Clean energy has crossed a critical threshold. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), global investment in clean energy is now twice that of fossil fuels. And this year, the IEA says investment in clean technologies - including renewables, nuclear, grid infrastructure, energy storage, low-emissions fuels, efficiency, and electrification - is expected to reach a record $2.2 trillion. This reflects not only accelerating decarbonisation efforts but also the growing influence of industrial and political policy in shaping energy transitions.

It’s time to treat climate action as an investment, not a cost. The necessary scale of transformation simply won’t happen unless finance actively commits to being part of the energy solution.

At Low Carbon, we’ve always believed that tackling climate change delivers measurable value. Clean energy infrastructure isn’t just a route to emissions reductions. It is a vehicle for long-term returns, energy security, and sustainable growth.

To achieve our goals, we need like-minded partners. Our ambition is to rapidly scale the creation of new renewable energy. New renewable infrastructure will prevent tonnes of carbon from entering the atmosphere, and will deliver stable, inflation-linked returns that support resilient energy systems.

For an energy transition to be successful, governments, businesses, financial institutions, and civil society must move together with clarity and urgency.

I call on the finance industry to understand the urgency of climate crisis. Low Carbon has a significant project pipeline and ready-to-build infrastructure that can channel ambition into action.

London Climate Action Week is a timely reminder that the UK has a leadership role to play in the global effort. As one of the world’s leading financial centres, we can make London a hub for climate-aligned investment. London can lead in the historic effort to transition the world to 100% renewable energy.

Without action, London is facing the threat of extreme heat. Scientists at Imperial College’s World Weather Attribution found the UK’s chance of 40C days has been increasing rapidly and is now over 20 times more likely than it was in the 1960s.

Let’s not wait until the next heatwave, the next wildfire, or the next flood to act.