Issue 12 | Feb 2020

editor's letter

Welcome to the twelfth edition of Leasing Life’s digital briefing magazine.

Very few of us will be unaware of the effects that climate change is having on the environment.

In the scramble to find solutions – and in the right hands – corporate financing and asset finance, in particular, have plenty to bring to the table.

The contributors to this Climate Change edition take stock of where leasing stands as a difficult decade begins for the planet.

Our first stop is in the UK where we talk to Darren Riva, the chief executive of Capitas Finance, to get the perspective of a rising specialist provider of green energy project financing about the state of corporate finance today.

In France, Olivier Ouazana of GreenFlex offers an opinion piece about why the leasing sector needs to get with the green programme.

3stepIT and Close Brothers both answer our ‘3 Questions’ about how their business models are rising to the challenge of climate change.

A comment piece by Acquis Insurance Management considers what else might be needed to bring leasing's 'circular economy' to fruition.

Netherlands-based car-as-a-service provider LeasePlan outlines its vision to achieve a carbon-neutral fleet leasing by 2030.

And lastly, we take a step back to consider some of the wider developments in the UK and EU that are likely to impact on corporate financing. Charlene Cranny offers the perspective of the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association.

Meet Licypriya Kangujam

Our cover features Licypriya Kangujam, aged 8, an environmentalist activist from India with her symbolic device called SUKIFU (Survival Kit for the Future) to curb air pollution.

The BBC reported recently that Licypriya has been campaigning for action to tackle India's poor air quality for two years and is pushing for laws to curb the notoriously high pollution levels of its cities.

She told the BBC: "If you call me Greta of India, you are not covering my story."

According to a Greenpeace report from 2019, twenty-two of the world's 30 most polluted cities are in India, with Delhi ranking as the world's most polluted capital.

Alejandro Gonzalez, Editor