Agenda

Agenda

8.00

Registration & Coffee

8.50

Chairman's welcome address

9.00

Panel session: broadening of the green bond market

The green bond market has seen issuers from a number of new sectors coming to market for the first time in the past year in Europe, and the use of green bond proceeds globally saw greater diversification in 2016 than any other previous year. Sustainability and social bonds are also continuing to attract investors, with record-breaking issues taking place in this fairly nascent market. This panel will bring together a panel of experts to discuss the drivers behind the broadening of Europe's green bond space and the potential for new industries to join the market in the coming 12 to 18 months.

  • Key green bond issues from new sectors in 2017 – what were the drivers behind these issues and what made them attractive for investors? Which sectors could be next?
  • What is the potential for a continued broadening of the green bond market? Will we see more structured products? Which new geographies have potential for more green bonds?
  • How is the sustainability and social bond market likely to evolve in the coming years?
  • How big is the long-term potential for new types of issuers and new types of green bonds in Europe?

Speakers:
Axel Bendiek, Head of Treasury, State of North Rhine-Westphalia
Ben Powell, Head of Funding, IFC
Emanuela Cernoia-Russo
, Senior Treasury Manager, TfL
Francois Millet
, head of product, Lyxor ETF
Thomas Pönisch
, Head of Treasury, DKB

Moderator: Jean-Marc Mercier, Managing Director, Global Co-Head of Debt Capital Markets, Global Banking, HSBC

10.00

Keynote presentation - Financing the future - how innovation and political shifts could impact green investment

  • Geo-political shifts, their potential impacts on the environment and green funding
  • How technology is opening up new possibilities for the design, bookbuilding and administration of green bonds
  • Innovation opportunities in the creation of combined environmental service and funding solutions
  • The emergence of new industry sectors - implications and opportunities for green funding
  • How the sector can become more anticipatory to catch the next wave of change before it happens

Rohit Talwar, CEO, Fast Future

10.25

Panel session: investor panel

  • Drivers of demand for Green Bonds
  • Financial performance – how is the financial performance of Green Bonds compared to non-Green Bonds?
  • How has the increased prominence of Green Bonds changed the discussion around ESG in your institution?
  • Why issue a Green Bond? Defined benefits of issuance versus initial work required to go green

Speakers:

Martin Cech, senior portfolio manager, Erste-Sparinvest
Ulf Erlandsson, senior portfolio manager, AP4
Abbas Ameli-Renani, Portfolio Manager, Amundi
Foppe Jan van der Meij, Senior Portfolio Manager, ACTIAM
Sarah Wilson
, Director on the Responsible Investment team, TIAA
Justin Eeles
, Head of Portfolio Management, Affirmative Investment Management

Moderator: Natalie Mordi-Hillaert, Green DCM, EMEA, Short Term Fixed Income Origination, Bank of America Merrill Lynch

11.15

Morning coffee break

11.45

The future of sovereign green bonds

Late 2016 saw the beginning of sovereign green bond issues in Europe with Poland and France coming to market with big-ticket bonds. Several other countries are understood to be considering sovereign green bonds as governments look to play bigger roles in mobilising green investments. This panel will examine the potential for sovereign green bonds in Europe and discuss how this market is expected to develop in the short and long-term. Speakers will also discuss the key challenges that come with sovereign bonds and speak of the role of governments more broadly in promoting green bond issues.

  • What are the key drivers for a country to issue a sovereign green bond? What made the sovereign green bonds issued to date a success?
  • How can governments gear up to issue a sovereign green bond?
  • What is the potential for this market to grow – will existing issuers issue further sovereign green bonds and which countries could be next?
  • What type of investors make up the sovereign green bond investor universe and how could this change in the future?
  • What are the main challenges associated with sovereign green bonds?
  • What types of broader environmental policies and support mechanisms can governments put in place to boost green bond issues?

Speakers:
Wilfried Bolt
, Senior Investment Manager, PGGM Investments
Sean Kidney
, CEO and co-founder, Climate Bonds Initiative
Alexandra Bonnet
, Deputy Head, Economic Department, Ministry for Ecology and Social Transition, Republic of France
Jochen Krimphoff
, Deputy Director - Green Finance, WWF-France

Moderator: Tanguy Claquin, head of sustainable banking, Credit Agricole CIB

12.25

Keynote: Green bonds - 10 years on

Johanna Köb, Responsible Investment Analyst, Investment Management, Zurich Insurance

12.45

Lunch

13.50

Panel session: Issuer panel

  • What motivated the latest corporate issuers to come to the market? What could drive a bigger diversification of corporate green bond issuers?
  • Corporate caution – are concerns about the added scrutiny associated with issuing a green bond holding back some potential corporate issuers? How can this be overcome?
  • Issuers' views on investors: have seasoned green bond investors noticed changes in investor demand in recent years? As the market has grown and expanded into new industries, do investors have other requirements now than some years ago?
  • What are the main risks – green bond market and macro-related – for issuers looking to come to market in the coming 12-18 months?·
  • The challenges of selecting appropriate assets and the reporting obligations

Moderator: Philip Brown, Managing Director, Head of Green and Social Bond Origination, Citi Global Markets

Speakers:
Eila Kreivi, Director and Head, Capital Markets Department, European Investment Bank.
Frédéric Bonnardel, Financing, Department of Finance, CDC Caisse des Depots et Consignations
Meral Özçiçek, Department Head, Financial Institutions, TSKB
Catarina da Silva
, Senior Advisor, Advisory Services, Sustainalytics
Sjaak-Jan Baars – Global Head of Long Term Funding, Rabobank

14.35

Panel session: impact and standards – where are we now and what's left to do?

Proving that green bonds make a real environmental impact is important for the continued growth of the market. Industry standards and guidelines have undoubtedly improved in recent years and market participants are working to harmonise guidelines across different markets. But as the green bond markets keeps growing, so do calls for more clarity around the environmental benefits of the transactions.

This panel of investors, NGOs and verifiers will discuss the ever-present question "do green bonds make a difference?" in the context of today, examining the effectiveness of current standards and guidelines. They will also look ahead to the future and give their predictions on how standards and impact reporting could evolve in the next five years.

Speakers:
Julia Haake
, Director International Business Development, oekom research
Igor Shishlov
, Project Manager, Finance, Investment & Climate, Institute for Climate Economics
Chris Wigley
, Senior Portfolio Manager, Mirova
Otto Weyhausen-Brinkmann
, Vice-President, Head of New Issues, KfW
Peter Munro
, Director, Market Practice and Regulatory Policy, ICMA

Moderator: Marilyn Ceci, Managing Director, Head of Green Bonds, J.P. Morgan Securities

15.20

Presentation - Assessing the climate mitigation impact of green bonds

Christopher Egerton-Warburton, Partner, Lion's Head Global Partners

15.30

Afternoon coffee break

15.50

PRESENTATION: Major sustainable finance initiatives and their impact on the green bond market

Our two speakers will talk about progress made by the FSB's Task-force for climate-related disclosure and the EU high-level expert group on sustainable finance and what these two initiatives mean for the green bond market.

Speakers:
Michael Wilkins, Managing Director, S&P Global Ratings
Lars Eibeholm, Head of Treasury, Nordic Investment Bank

16.15

Boosting green bonds in emerging markets

Emerging markets have been touted to have huge potential for green bonds for years, but still make up a relatively small share of green bonds issued and diversification into new emerging market countries and currencies is fairly slow. But efforts are underway to bolster the market, for example with IFC's announcement last year that it will launch a $2bn fund to provide anchor investments for emerging market green bonds. Speakers on this panel will discuss:

  • The progress to date of the IFC's cornerstone fund and other efforts to boost emerging market efforts
  • What is needed on individual emerging market government level to encourage more issues? Which governments are already doing this?
  • Expectations for the year ahead – new countries, currencies
  • Performance and risks – have the emerging market green bonds issued so far performed as expected? What are the main risks associated with the bonds?

Felipe Gordillo, Senior ESG analyst, BNPP Investment Partners
Evelyn Patricia Hartwick
, Senior Financial Officer, IFC Treasury
Murray C. Simpson
, Director Climate Resilience, Amec Foster Wheeler
Rahul Ghosh
, Vice-President and Senior Credit Officer, Moody's Investors Service
Simten Ozturk
, Manager, Infrastructure and Commercial Real Estate Finance projects, Garanti Bank

Moderator: Stephanie Sfakianos, BNP Paribas 

 

17.00

End of conference and drinks reception