“Sticking by the status quo will not get us where we need to be, The current trajectory is not sustainable.”
That’s the rare and radical warning from top banker John Flint.
As CEO of the UK’s National Wealth Fund, he sees the system from the inside. His message is clear. While the first 50% of transition was achieved in a barely visible way, the final 50% will be much more difficult without a huge change in attitudes.
People must feel positive about the radical things we must all do to combat climate change. This will not be easy.
“We’ve picked the low-hanging fruit. We now have to deal with decarbonizing our homes and our built environment. We have to decarbonize travel. We have to decarbonize the harder-to-abate sectors like cement, etc.”
So a new narrative is needed to encourage people to engage. They must not feel “beaten around the head”.
Boards, investors, politicians, everyone needs to open their eyes and step up. “The do nothing case is not good enough for the planet”. “This country invented the high-carbon industrial revolution. We have a moral responsibility to play a meaningful role on this next journey.”
Making the huge challenge more difficult is that “the private sector’s appetite for risk hasn’t really shifted.” What John condemns as “institutional rigidity” means they want to continue operating on their terms and don’t want to change.
“It’s the entire system.” And that means a new mindset. Not just around policy. But around embracing risk. Around uncertainty. Around shared responsibility.
“If someone takes a risk and it doesn’t work out, what happens next? Do we back them to go again, or bemoan the failure?”
The UK has the tools. The innovation. The support systems. The talent. But it needs courage to embrace the unthinkable. “We need to come off the stable path and support each other when we hit the bumps.”
This is not about blind optimism. “We’ve got to get really good at making the rest of this transition easy for consumers. If we make it easy, it can happen”.
So it’s about doing the hard work before the rebuild becomes unavoidable. “We don’t want to be dealing with a post-war scale of recovery.”
The time to act is now. On our terms. With clarity. With purpose. And with courage that makes the final 50% achievable.
Overall “there’s a lot to be optimistic about”.
John Flint
John Flint is a seasoned leader in finance and sustainable investment, recognized for his candid insights and commitment to transformative change. As CEO of the UK’s National Wealth Fund, he advocates for bold risk-taking and a systemic mindset shift to accelerate the net zero transition. With extensive experience in financial services and public policy, John champions innovative approaches that align economic growth with climate action, urging collaboration across sectors to build a resilient, low-carbon future.
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