The Future of ESG Data 2022

Chair's opening remarks

Peter Cripps, Editor, Environmental Finance

Opening Keynote: Progress report from the ISSB (International Sustainability Standards Board)

Lee White, Executive Director, IFRS Foundation

Keynote: IOSCO’s Outlook on the ISSB standards

Kris Nathanail, Senior Policy Advisor, IOSCO General Secretariat

Keynote: Regulatory developments in the U.S. affecting ESG - insights from the SEC

Jaime Lizárraga, Commissioner, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

Panel: Navigating the fast changing regulatory landscape for ESG Data in Europe

• How is regulation going to transform the market? What will be the effects of making companies disclose more, by making investors disclose more, and by regulating the labelling of investment products?
• How are companies and their accountancy firms going to comply with regulations and requests for data? Is that information available?
• Corporate disclosure through the creation of ESAP (European Single Access Point) – what will it look like?
• Will third party data assurance and auditing become mandatory, to improve data integrity and investor confidence?

Moderator:
Carmen Munoz, Head of Resource Development, Sustainable Fitch

Panellists:
Brunno Maradei, Member of Consultative Working Group, ESMA Sustainability Coordination Network & Global Head of Responsible Investment, Aegon Asset Management
Mark Manning, Technical Specialist, Sustainable Finance & Stewardship, FCA (Financial Conduct Authority)
Patrick de Cambourg, EFRAG SRB Board Member, and Chair, ANC (Autorité des Normes Comptables)

Panel: What ESG data influences investment decisions?

• Understanding how ESG data can be used throughout the investment value chain, from selecting the investment to measuring its ESG performance
• Data provider selection: navigating through the plethora of different providers and ensuring that the data purchased aligns with the ESG investment strategy
• Which ESG metrics should investors prioritise? Will forward-looking metrics take over?
• Practical examples of how asset managers are using data, such as aggregating third party data and overlaying it with in-house methodologies:
• Discussing the limitations of self-reported corporate data vs. AI-derived data
• Managing the costs of increasingly complex data needs due to reporting requirements
• Discussing the lack of correlation and transparency between ESG rating methodologies: - How can it improve? Does it actually need to? Is this "black box" problematic for investors, or simply par for the course, given that there is no single definition of ESG?

Moderator:
Jimmy Greer, VP - Outreach & Research, Moody's ESG Solutions, Moody's

Panellists:
Diandra Soobiah, Head of Responsible Investment, NEST (National Employment Savings Trust)
Gema Esteban Garrido, Global Head of ESG, IG4 Capital
Hetal Patel, Head of Climate Investment Risk, Phoenix Group
David Hickey, Director, UK Head of Sustainability, BlackRock

Presentation: Impact investments – investor case study: building an internal impact model

Rupini Deepa Rajagopalan, Head of ESG Office, Berenberg

Panel: Corporates' perspectives on data disclosures and corporate sustainability reporting

• Ensuring that the metrics you are using for reporting and disclosure are integral to the ESG strategy, and the overall corporate strategy
• Managing the challenges of an increased burden of reporting, meeting increasingly complex reporting requirements with limited regulatory guidance, and assuring the data
• What practices are emerging? How is double materiality being approached?
• Examining the challenges faced by SMEs and small companies in meeting increased disclosure requirements
• Aligning financial reporting with non-financial reporting:
• How are ESG KPIs getting integrated with quarterly/annual financial reporting, and annual corporate reports? Will all corporates eventually move towards fully integrated reporting?
• What needs to happen within the corporation, from getting board buy-in to integrating ESG into internal controls, and ensuring alignment between the sustainability team and the finance team?
• How successfully are corporates engaging with their investors, and vice versa, to meet evolving data needs, and ensure that KPIs are strategically aligned?
• What more can ratings providers do to support corporates in meeting their ESG goals? Should they engage more with corporates when conducting their assessments?
• To what extent are private unregulated companies adopting voluntary best practices for ESG disclosure? Will this become a growing trend in order for them to compete for capital alongside public companies?

Moderator:
Vincent Huck, Editor, Corporate Disclosures

Panellists:
Andrew Young, Vice President, ESG & Climate Change Research, MSCI
Eliza Mahdavy, Group Head of ESG Performance, EDF
Florence Renouard de Maistre, ESG Reporting Manager, TotalEnergies
Harriet Howey, Global Non-Financial Reporting and ESG Lead, Diageo
Lene Bjørn Serpa, Head of Corporate Sustainability & ESG, A.P. Moller-Maersk

Panel: Managing the complexities of ESG data to adhere to EU regulations

• The impact of ESG data challenges on the EU regulations: how are data providers supporting investors?
• How are financial advisors coping with these challenges and how are product manufacturers are responding to advisors' needs?
• Will new corporate disclosure requirements under CSRD and the envisioned EU ESG database solve some of these issues?
• What's next for the EU Taxonomy and SFDR, and other regulations, such as PAI?

Moderator:
Anastasia Georgiou, Director of Client Solutions, Morningstar

Panellists:
Anne Schoemaker, Director of ESG Products, Morningstar Sustainalytics
Rebecca Kowalski, Sustainable Investment Advocate and Consultant
Yiannis Bartzilas, Director of ESG, Muzinich

Panel: The Future of ESG data – where is the market heading?

• How can we use ESG data and AI/NLP to achieve greater insights and make better decisions?
• What are the use cases of ESG data, and what new innovative products are being developed?
• Where are the data gaps and how to fill them? (for example, supply chains, scope 3 emissions, private markets)
• Where next for ESG raters? What is the future of ESG rating agencies now that there is going to be more mandatory disclosure of data and it will also be more readily available through the ESAP? How will they need to evolve?
• What data do we need to build the sustainable products of the future?
• To what extent could satellite data, alternative data and other innovations transform ESG data?
• Impact and double materiality – how will this play out?

Moderator:
Peter Cripps, Editor, Environmental Finance

Panellists:
Alex Money, CEO, Oxford Earth Observation
Gordon Bennett, Global Head of Environmental Markets, ICE
James Leaton, Research Director, SDI AOP (Sustainable Development Investments Asset Owner Platform)
Reinhilde Weidacher, Managing Director, Head of ESG Data Strategy, ISS ESG

Closing remarks

End of conference