Gordon Noble joins UTS this month, to assist in the development of a proposed UTS-led Australian Sustainable Finance Centre. We spoke to Gordon about his new appointment and what he hopes to achieve in this new role.
What will you be doing for UTS?
My focus is on catalysing the development of an Australian Sustainable Finance Centre by working with a broad cross section of Australian financial system participants, including government, regulators, insurance, banking and superannuation firms.
Which of your skills and experience will you draw on for this role?
The key skill I will most draw upon is the ability to communicate ideas and collaborate with a broad cross section of partners to achieve outcomes. I have been involved in many campaigns over the years where the biggest obstacle is to get a community to appreciate how change can actually be achieved. For financial system participants this means translating their need for new learning and knowledge that supports the management of risks and opportunities that come from climate change and the SDGs. Understanding what it is Australia’s financial system needs, and what constraints they face, will enable us to develop a pathway through an Australian Sustainable Finance Centre.
What excites me most about this role is the chance to create a deep flow of knowledge, not a trickle.
Gordon Noble
What excites you about joining the team/being involved in establishing the Sustainable Finance Centre?
In 1873 Walter Bagehot wrote the classic book on money markets, Lombard Street, in which he famously stated “Thus (English) capital runs as surely and instantly where it is most wanted, and where there is most to be made of it, as water runs to find its level”.
The analogy of capital flowing like water always struck me as critical to scaling finance to meet challenges such as climate change and the SDGs. What excites me most about this role is the chance to create a deep flow of knowledge, not a trickle. Establishing a financial system ecosystem for knowledge that supports research for sustainability is about understanding the impediments that are preventing knowledge from flowing in the first place. If we are able to address these impediments then we open up the possibility that we can address at scale the raft of economic, social and environmental challenges that face us.
Why do we need a Sustainable Finance Centre and why now?
Australia’s financial system is critical to the allocation of capital and management of risks across the Australian economy, society and environment. There is no single magic button that can be pressed that will transform the system to one which supports a resilient and sustainable society and environment. Because issues like climate change and the SDGs will evolve over coming years there is a need for constant learning by Australia’s financial system participants. The challenge we have is that there is currently no “Central Station” that acts as the mechanism for knowledge on sustainability to flow across Australia’s financial system. The cost of not connecting knowledge to practice can be significant. It can mean that an innovation that is developed by an Australian university can take much longer to be implemented than is necessary. Establishing an Australian Sustainable Finance Centre enables the development of the network and capabilities for research and knowledge to flow efficiently to practitioners.
Do you think there’s appetite across Australia’s financial system for sustainability research projects? If so/not, why?
Australia’s financial system has many environmental and social challenges it is seeking to manage.
Establishing an Australian Sustainable Finance Centre requires translating the potential outcomes from research projects into language that financial system participants understand in their own sectors. For investors, this may mean the ability to identify new investment opportunities or supporting managing risk in an investment portfolio. For a bank, it may mean the ability to better manage lending risks from water management, or modern slavery in supply chains. For governments and regulators, it may mean identifying new ways to open up markets in areas such as natural capital, new technology and infrastructure. The common denominator across the system is the need for a continuous flow of learning and knowledge.
When we compare Australia’s financial system with sectors such as medical practitioners, we can see what an efficient learning ecosystem looks like. An example is The Lancet, a peer reviewed journal that medical practitioners commonly access through structured continuing professional development programs. For Australia’s financial system, the appetite for investing in learning comes from the impacts of climate change and SDGs that have the potential to significantly impact all aspects of the system.
About Gordon
For the past 30 years, Gordon Noble has worked across Australia’s financial system in a variety of roles including representing finance sector workers for the Finance Sector Union, as a political adviser for Stephen Conroy as shadow minister for financial services, in frontline roles with customers and clients for National Australia Bank, Cbus and Inflection Point Capital Management and as Director of Government Relations and Investment for the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia.
Gordon has authored chapters in a number of books including most recently a chapter on ‘financing the SDGs’ for the forthcoming Palgrave Handbook of Climate Resilient Societies. In 2020 Gordon co-authored the Australian Sustainable Finance Roadmap with the Australian Sustainable Finance Initiative.
About the Australian Sustainable Finance Centre
The financial services sector has an important role to play in responding to challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, poverty, inequality, technological disruption, and unforeseen crises like Covid. The sector can also support the opportunities that arise in building a more sustainable and resilient Australian economy and society.
UTS proposes to establish a collaborative Australian Sustainable Finance Centre to provide:
- Research: a program of research to advance resilience, prosperity and wellbeing through sustainable finance, in particular where there are research gaps
- Capacity building: learning, professional development and capacity building programs to build critical sustainable finance knowledge, skills and leadership
- Collaboration: between the financial services sector, academia, business, civil society and government.
Through collaboration, research and capacity building, the Centre will accelerate sustainable finance innovation in Australia.