In addition, delegates heard how legal challenges over pollution, the so-called 'Dieselgate' revelations and increasing government intervention are all helping to accelerate change in manufacturing, technology and utilities, although the going is slow.
Ugo Taddei, lawyer for activist legal firm Client Earth, commented: "At the moment, there are strong new rules for emissions coming out and we hope to see more positive outcomes.
"Unfortunately, although car manufacturers are starting to announce new EVs, they do not want to be bound by the new targets so there is still a difficult discussion and a lot of economic arguments to be heard."
John Ditchfield, financial adviser at Castlefield, commented: "There are a good number of relatively mainstream collective investments which offer access to the key transport related sustainability themes, which are 'clean' transport and vehicle safety in cities.
"I recently met with Liontrust and they’ve included vehicle safety as one of their investment themes. This includes reducing harmful emissions and addressing driver and pedestrian safety issues.
"WHEB Sustainability is also an investor into engine design technology including electric vehicles."
simoney.kyriakou@ft.com
