Sustainable Debt Americas 2024

19 September 2024, New York

Overview Agenda Speakers Sponsors

Agenda

8:50

Welcoming remarks

Ahren Lester, Assistant Editor, Environmental Finance

9:00

Panel: Outlook for the Sustainable Debt market in 2025: Opportunities for growth and potential headwinds

  • Impact of the formal recognition of "Green Enabling" activities and developing market best practice
  • The continued growth of taxonomies in the Americas region
  • Improvements in methodologies and metrics for avoided emissions
  • Enhanced guidance on transition plans
  • Potential political risks and how they might impact green infrastructure and the availability of corporate data

Moderator:
Robert White, Managing Director, Head of Green & Sustainable Hub - Americas, Natixis CIB

Panellists:
Ashwin Joshi, Director, Fixed Income ESG Investment, BlackRock
Luciana Costa, Infrastruture, Energy Transition and Climate Change Managing Director, BNDES
Matt Christ, Portfolio Manager, Emerging Markets Fixed Income, Ninety One 

9:45

Panel: The shifting tides of ESG debate and what it means for the labelled bond market

  • How is ESG integrated in your corporate strategy?
  • How can issuers and investors meet the demands of increasing integrity without putting an additional layer of burden and cost on the issuers?
  • How are you using your sustainability strategy in your discussions with investors, equity or debt investors?
  • Taxonomies: How is the market adapting to regionalisation versus global frameworks?
  • Where do you see the next innovation coming from?

Moderator:
Anne van Riel, Head of Sustainable Finance Capital Markets Americas, BNP Paribas

Panellists:
Daniel Buza, VP Treasurer, Equinix
Fernando Reiter, Corporate Financing Director, Cemex

10:30

Fireside Chat: Sovereign Issuer Case Study - Australia's inaugural Green Bond

Anna Hughes, CEO, Australian Office of Financial Management (AOFM)

11:00

Morning networking break

11:30

Track one: Transition, innovation and infrastructure

Track two: Sovereigns, nature and biodiversity and social impact

Panel: Financing emerging green and transition technologies

Panel: ESG investment and engagement strategies for sovereign debt
  • Carbon capture, hydrogen, battery storage: what are the opportunities for investors looking to support transition and clean tech?
  • What role will the labeled bond market play in financing emerging technologies?
  • Will economic and political developments accelerate or slow innovation and investment momentum?
  • What are some of the challenges with scaling emerging technologies, and how can these hurdles be overcome?
  • What is driving the evolving sentiment around nuclear energy?

Moderator:
Matt Kuchtyak, Vice President, Sustainable Finance, Moody's Ratings

Panellists:
Fanny Doucet, Managing Director & Head of Sustainable Finance, Scotiabank
Jamie Friedland, Sustainability Analyst, AXA Investment Managers
Seth Jacobson, Climate Solutions Officer, Climate Resolve
  • Will we see the momentum for labelled sovereign issuance continues in 2024?
  • How do investors feel about sovereign SLBs?
  • What impact could the Task Force on Sustainability-Linked Sovereign Financing for Nature and Climate have on issuance?
  • Going beyond labelled bonds: what frameworks should be used for assessing the sustainability of and impact of sovereign issuers whether labelled or not.
  • How do you take into consideration countries' different starting points when evaluating their sustainability performance?
  • How is the ASCOR project and PRI supporting engagement and climate progress? 

Panellists:
Alexander Schober, Senior Associate, Fixed Income ESG & Climate Research, MSCI
Lisa Fillingame Abraham, Director of Fixed Income Research, Sustainable Investing, Brown Advisory
Nuvneet Dhillon, ESG Specialist, PGIM Fixed Income

12:15

Fireside chat: Issuer Case Study - Ontario's sustainable bond funding program

Fireside chat: Blue finance's role in promoting sustainable capital markets in emerging markets and developing economies
Speaker:
Elizabeth Wallace, Senior Manager Funding, Capital Markets Division, Ontario Financing Authority

 

 

 

  • How will the first dedicated 'blue' bond investment strategy support sustainable marine and water investment in emerging markets?
  • How can such opportunities be designed to reach the scale needed to meet both investment demand and attract mainstream investors?
  • What would make blue bonds more mainstream and more impactful?
  • What guidance has been issued for issuers and investors thinking about opportunities in this space?

Moderator:
Genevieve Redgrave, Reporter, Environmental Finance

Speakers:
Samy Muaddi, Head of Emerging Markets Fixed Income, T. Rowe Price
Laila Nordine, Senior Manager, Sustainable Finance, Financial Institutions Group, IFC

12:45

Lunch

13:45

Track one: Transition, innovation and infrastructure

Track two: Sovereigns, nature and biodiversity and social impact

Investor panel: Funding a low-carbon future – how investors can make an impact across fixed income

Panel: Financing biodiversity and natural capital in fixed income
  •  If additionality is a concern for green bonds, how can investors seek impact in vanilla bonds?
  • In the absence of a transition label, are vanilla bonds where most impact can be made in a credit strategy?
  • When will we see more dedicated transition funds in fixed income?
  • What tools are being used to apply an ESG lens to the wider fixed income universe and understand transition risks?
  • Disclosure and third-party assessment of entity-level transition plans: what information investors are investors asking for? How are SPO providers adapting?

Moderator:
Kirsty Meldrum, Executive Director, Sustainable Finance, Santander Corporate and Investment Banking

Panellists:
Armelle de Vienne, Principal and Co-Head of ESG Research, PGIM Fixed Income
Joshua Linder, Senior Credit Analyst, Fixed Income, APG Asset Management
Marcy Block, Global Head of ESG Ratings, Sustainable Fitch
  • What types of instruments are best suited to drive finance to nature preservation and restoration?
  • Biodiversity-related KPIs – why haven't we seen more?
  • Will carbon credits be incorporated into future issuances?
  • How are investors putting together natural capital-themed impact funds?
  • Debt-for-nature swaps: what are the risks to investors? How is accountability ensured and impact reported? Should they be verified by third parties?

Moderator:
Divya Bendre, Managing Director, Head of Sustainable Fixed Income, Americas, BofA Securities

Panellists:
Brian Ellis, Managing Director & Portfolio Manager, Calvert Research & Management
Slav Gatchev, Managing Director, Sustainable Debt, The Nature Conservancy
Stephen M. Liberatore, Senior Managing Director - Head of ESG/Impact, Global Fixed Income, Nuveen

14:30

Panel: How to support credible growth for sustainability-linked instruments

Panel: Sustainable debt's role in tackling the social cost of climate change
  • How should issuers/borrowers approach KPI selection for sustainability-linked bonds and loans?
  • How do SLBs and SLLs complement each other? When should they diverge?
  • What are the key challenges for issuers and investors?
  • Is a fear of failure among potential issuers and borrowers frustrating the process of setting more ambitious targets?
  • Where do annual tests and Scope 3 fit into the picture?
  • What key steps can be taken to reinvigorate the sustainability-linked debt market?

Moderator:
Pamela Snyder, Director, Accelerator, Financial Institutions Engagement, Ceres

Panellists: 
Jeff Cohen, Managing Director, Head of ESG & Sustainability, Oak Hill Advisors
Patrick O'Connell, Director - Fixed Income Responsible Investing Research, AllianceBernstein
Simone Andrews, Senior Responsible Investment Manager, APG Asset Management
Thomas Scherr, Portfolio Manager and Senior Investment Analyst, Federated Hermes
  • Social bonds and a just transition: how to mobilise social capital and bonds with the just transition in mind
  • Food security and public health: how is a growing interest in intersection of social and environmental issues resulting in environmentally-themed use of proceeds that have social co-benefits and benefits to human health.
  • What social impact metrics can be applied?
  • Should the priority for social bonds be impact not volume?
  • What are the social risks that ESG investors should be thinking about?
  • What is the potential for social debt structures across the Americas?

Moderator:
Aaron E. Franklin, Managing Director, Head of Sustainable Finance, Americas Division, SMBC

Panellists:
Alán Bonilla, Director and Lead Analyst, Sustainable Finance, S&P Global Ratings
Carole Laible, CEO, Domini Impact Investments
Domingo Valdes, CFO and Board Member, Vinte
Mehdi Khalili, Investment Strategist, Legal & General Retirement America

15:15

Afternoon break

15:45

Fireside chat: Issuer Case Study – Dow Inc. Inaugural Green Bond

Moderator:
Cindy Jia, Head of Sustainable Finance, Americas, ING

Speaker:
Andrea Vigo, Senior Global Director Capital Markets and Sustainable Financing, Corporate Treasury, Dow Chemical

16:15

Panel: The next frontier – Closing the climate finance gap with sustainable finance and artificial intelligence

  • What role can A.I. play in evaluating sustainable debt investment decisions and opportunities?
  • Current trends in allocation and impact reporting
  • When might there be deeper development of labelled debt in emerging markets? What catalysts are needed to   continue to propel the market forward?
  • How should investors and banks assess emerging markets when it comes to sustainable finance?
  • Making an impact in specific themes: Gender, biodiversity

 

Moderator:
Romina Reversi, Managing Director, Head of Sustainable Investment Banking, Americas, Crédit Agricole CIB

Panellists:
Ayelet Perlstein, Head of Investor Relations, IFC
Colleen Keenan, Senior Financial Officer, Capital Markets and Investments, World Bank Treasury
Emily Weng, Vice President, Fundamental Fixed Income ESG Investment, Blackrock
Krista Tukiainen, Co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer, ClimateAligned
Monica Landaeta, Lead Funding Officer, IDB Invest

17:15

Close of conference and networking drinks reception