M-RCBG Senior Fellow-Led Study Group: Sajid Javid
Friday, March 19, 12:00-1:00pm
View the webinar HERE.
As the UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer in 2019, the Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP set the ambitious terms of reference for a landmark, independent, global review on the 'Economics of Biodiversity'. One of the main aims of this review, led by Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta (Frank Ramsey Professor Emeritus, University of Cambridge), was to create insight into how financial and policy decisions can reverse biodiversity loss.
Published in February 2021, it is the largest and most comprehensive review of its kind in the world. It explores the role of natural capital in delivering planetary, societal, and economic prosperity. Natural capital accounting assigns a monetary value to natural resources like forests and healthy soil, allowing businesses to calculate the “true cost” of their decisions.
The green economy has welcomed the review with open arms, but many are still waiting to see how global policymakers and businesses will implement the advice of the review.
In this Study Group, the Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP and Professor Sir Dasgupta will discuss the review, its key findings and next steps.
The Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP is a British Member of Parliament and former Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom. He served in the Cabinet of three Prime Ministers as the Secretary of State for five different Departments, including the Treasury and Home Office. Before going into politics he worked in business and finance, latterly as a senior Managing Director for Deutsche Bank. Sajid was born in Rochdale, England. He was the first of his family to win a place at University, attending Exeter to read Economics and Politics. He is married to Laura and they are proud parents of four children. Sajid started his career at Chase Manhattan Bank NA in 1991, first in London and then in New York. Aged 25, he was made a Vice President. In 2000, he joined Deutsche Bank in London to help build its business in emerging markets. As a senior Managing Director, Sajid moved to Singapore with Deutsche Bank in 2006 to run its credit trading, commodities, convertibles and principal finance businesses in Asia. He also served as a board member of Deutsche Bank International (Asia) Limited. Sajid left Deutsche Bank in the summer of 2009 to give back through public service. He was elected as a Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom for the constituency of Bromsgrove in 2010, and has been re-elected three times since. Sajid served as Economic Secretary and Financial Secretary before joining the UK Cabinet in 2014 as the Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport, the first of his intake to join the Cabinet, and the first ethnic minority MP to become a Secretary of State in British history. In 2015 he was appointed Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and President of the Board of Trade. In 2016, Sajid was appointed Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. In 2018, he became Home Secretary, one of the four Great Offices of State, and took on responsibility for the UK’s internal affairs, national security, borders and immigration policy. In 2019, Sajid was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, responsible for all the UK’s economic and financial matters. He resigned from that office in February 2020. Sajid has served on the UK’s National Security Council for over 3 years. He is a member for life of Her Majesty’s Privy Council. As a Senior Fellow Sajid will research the lessons to be learned by governments and business from the COVID-19 pandemic and how they can be used to better prepare for future high-impact low-probability events. His faculty sponsor is Richard Zeckhauser, the Frank P. Ramsey Professor of Political Economy, Harvard Kennedy School. Email: sajidjavid@hks.harvard.edu