The billionaire financier and former New York mayor is wagering that London, not Washington, is where the climate economy will pay off, committing more than £400m as he positions the capital as a magnet for green investment and jobs.
Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire American financial services and media mogul, is backing London to reap a wave of investment and jobs on the back of a boom in climate-fighting ventures and initiatives.
The former New York mayor and green campaigner, who has an estimated net worth of $109bn (£82bn), will this week unveil more than £400m of new funding for organisations tackling climate change during a visit to the capital, timed to coincide with London Climate Action Week, now Europe’s largest city-wide climate gathering.
“Businesses and investors recognise that the steps that fight climate change also drive economic growth and create jobs,” he is expected to tell an audience in the City of London. “As an international centre of finance and an engine of private sector innovation, London has a very important role to play.”
Bloomberg, known across the financial world for the data terminals that bear his name, is in the UK as UN Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions, hosting and anchoring a slate of events alongside his long-standing green ally Prince William and the United Nations secretary general, António Guterres. According to Bloomberg Philanthropies, Guterres will use one of the final major climate speeches of his term to address the global energy crisis at Guildhall, before the Earthshot Prize Impact Assembly and a Local Climate Action Summit convened with C40 Cities.
The 84-year-old, who considers London his second home and recently joined Berkshire’s Sunningdale Golf Club, plans to say: “London has helped to lead the way forward with bold actions to cut emissions and air pollution. People want to live in cities with clean air and, where people want to live, businesses want to invest.”
Over the course of the week, Bloomberg is set to commit $590m (£446m) of new funds to climate ventures, charities and initiatives, with a significant share expected to flow into UK businesses and organisations. It is a timely message for British firms, coming as the government’s Seventh Carbon Budget anchors a £105bn net zero economy that already supports tens of thousands of small and medium-sized enterprises.
Bloomberg Philanthropies has previously ploughed money into UK-based climate groups including the Prince William-fronted Earthshot Prize, C40 Cities, Kew Gardens, the Clean Air Fund, Global Fishing Watch and Blue Ventures.
The renewed commitment is striking for its timing. It comes just as many other large US investors and corporates, taking their cue from President Trump, have been pulling back from climate initiatives, with a string of household names from luxury to banking softening or delaying their net zero pledges. For UK firms weighing up whether the transition is still worth the capital, the argument that London should not retreat from net zero has rarely had a more deep-pocketed champion.
For the City, the calculation Bloomberg is making is a simple one: in an era of geopolitical fragmentation, the money, talent and jobs will gravitate to the places that keep faith with the green economy. He is betting that place is London.