2023-10-02 20:06:15
The Building Bridges summit opened on Monday in Geneva at the International Conference Center (CICG), where more than 2,000 participants from finance, civil society and entrepreneurship are expected. The launch of this annual sustainable finance meeting was disrupted by the action of an environmentalist collective.
Building Bridges Days of Action features more than 65 events funded and planned by more than 100 organizations to fight climate change.
“This year, the ‘Building Bridges’ summit will create a collaborative environment in which participants can exchange their views on sustainable development issues,” explains Sandrine Salerno, former mayor of Geneva and executive director of the event. in a press release.
The summit will be followed by three days of action which will be dedicated to the “latest trends in sustainable finance”, with discussions and critical workshops on the future of finance.
For this 4th edition, the interdependence between humans, nature and finance will be at the heart of the discussions. The event kicked off on Monday with the presence of the President of the Confederation Alain Berset and the Managing Director of UBS Sergio Ermotti.
Action by the “BreakFree” collective
The launch of Breaking Bridges was, however, disrupted by action by the environmentalist collective BreakFree. On Monday at 12:30 p.m., a vehicle left a pile of debris in front of the Geneva International Conference Center. It was made up of charred tree trunks from the Bitsch forest (VS), but also of various objects collected after the storm that hit La Chaux-de-Fonds.
>> Images of the action carried out by the BreakFree collective: The ecological collective BreakFree is taking action in Geneva / News in video / 28 sec. / yesterday at 3:58 p.m.
“Climate change is hitting us, here as elsewhere,” activist Guillaume Durin told RTS on Monday. And to criticize the financial players who participate in the event and who still invest today in fossil fuels.
Business on the climate
The sponsors of this summit – including “UBS, but also Barclay, BNP, Bank of China, Blackrock and many others” – only seek to do “more business on climate change” while hiding “their disastrous carbon footprint” , denounced the member of Breakfree. The collective’s action aimed to denounce greenwashing.
Sandrine Salerno refuted these accusations on La Matinale de la RTS on Monday. The summit aims to “maintain dialogue, continue to raise awareness, explain why and work on how,” she claimed. These partners therefore remain “interesting in the discussion”, although they do not have “leverage for change”.
>> See also the interview with Marie-Laure Schaufelberger, director of sustainability strategy at Pictet bank, in La Matinale: The guest of La Matinale (video) – Marie-Laure Schaufelberger, director of sustainability strategy at Pictet bank / The guest of La Matinale (video) / 12 min. / yesterday at 08:59
Radio subject: Cecilia Mendoza
Adaptation web: Hélène Krähenbühl/mera
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