Climate change is in the consciousness of most organisations globally, and is an increasingly important factor in business decision-making; in some areas, it is a responsibility and a duty.
The need to think about our footprint, both now and for future generations, has become urgent.
The IFoA has developed several significant activities to address these long-term issues, including the evolution of the Learning Change Programme and the delivery of a new sustainability credential. We have teamed up with external agencies to promote the actuarial role in tackling climate change, and have established actuarial expertise and insight on sustainable topics. This will help shape the future of the profession by encouraging and facilitating members to speak up about climate change and what it means for the professsion.
I am delighted to have been invited to contribute, personally, to the City of London Corporation’s independent taskforce for improving socio-economic diversity at senior levels in the UK’s financial and professional services. This work has been commissioned by the Treasury and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. My role is within one of the workstreams chaired by Andy Haldane, currently chief economist at the Bank of England. It will include senior leaders from a range of subsectors, regions and business sizes, as well as diverse personal characteristics. This will enable the taskforce to maximise change within the sector.
The IFoA fully appreciates the need for urgent, co-ordinated senior leadership to drive meaningful change and boost the productivity and global competitiveness of UK financial services. Actuaries contribute unique skills and a long-term perspective to the understanding and management of risks across society and over time. However, the statistics are stark, with financial and professional services largely recruiting within its own pool, and those coming from ‘outside’ finding it harder to make the progress their talents deserve. We are all poorer for it.
Stephen Mann is the chief executive of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries
