NIB President: Use financial regimes to change attitudes

“Financial instruments are effective in influencing human and institutional behaviour. It is only by setting the right price on carbon and other greenhouse gases that we can expect the global community to really change its behaviour,” said NIB’s President and CEO, Johnny Åkerholm, at a climate conference held in connection with the Nordic Council annual meeting.

The conference, entitled “Paving the way—concrete measures to tackle climate change” was organised by NIB together with the Nordic Council in cooperation with the Swedish Presidency of the EU as part of the process in the run-up to the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (COP 15) in December.

“Experience shows that by giving clear signals and providing sufficient time for the different actors to react, there will be change and even radical new regimes can be introduced,” Mr Åkerholm said.

He went on to say that, in the longer term, climate change aspects should be internalised across the board in the financing community, so that projects with negative effects are discarded and projects with positive effects prioritised.

More than 450 people attended the high-level conference, at which politicians, decision-makers and leaders of Nordic and global energy companies and financial institutions discussed, among other topics, practical solutions to mitigating climate change and how to influence the results at COP 15.