Agenda

08:00

Registration

08:30

Chair’s Opening remarks

08:40

Breakfast Presentation from Environmental Finance Data: Market movements – Sustainable bonds and loans

09:00

Panel: Sustainable debt in 2025 - A look at the big themes that will shape the market over the next year

Outlook for labelled issuance in 2025 and beyond – Where is the next wave of growth coming from? What are the key drivers and headwinds?
How are issuer and investor expectations changing?
Will we see increasing divergence in policy and regulation between the US, Europe and Asia? How is Europe likely to respond to this?
Will sustainability-linked issuance turn a corner in 2025 - what is needed to support this important transition instrument?
Are issuers becoming more comfortable including green enabling projects in their finance programmes and how do investors feel about this category?
The potential for OpEx in sustainable bonds – what are the opportunities and risks?

Moderator:
Stéphane Marciel, Head of Sustainable Bonds, Debt Capital Markets, Société Générale CIB

Speakers:
Nicole Della Vedova, Finance Director, SNAM
Vijay Singh Bains, Group Chief Sustainability Officer, Group Head of ESG, Emirates NBD
Felix Grote, Head of Long Term Funding, Council of Europe Development Bank

09:45

Panel: The EU Green Bond Standard – Early issuer and investor perspectives and its impact on the green bond market

Experiences of the first issuers using the EU GBS: How difficult is it to meet the requirements – experience gained and lessons learnt? What are the benefits for issuers and is it worth the extra work involved?
How are investors responding to the standard?
What are issuers and investors views on alignment to EU GBS vs ICMA Green Bond Principles?
How consequential will the EU GBS be for the future development of the broader green bond market?

Moderator: Agnes Gourc, Sustainable Finance Markets Head, BNP Paribas

Antoine Corbin, Co-Head of ESG Ratings, EMEA, Sustainable Fitch

10:30

Fireside Chat: Financing the energy transition

How will different policy choices across Europe, the US and Asia change the pace and shape of the energy transition?
What are the opportunities and challenges for investors looking to support energy transition technologies and clean tech?
How will the next really impactful investments aim to address the structural challenges in the European energy market across producers, transmission and supply networks?

Moderator: Royal Bank of Canada

11:00

Morning break

11:30

Sustainable bonds track 1: GSS bonds and Impact	Sustainable bonds track 2: Innovation, sovereigns, nature and biodiversity	Sustainable loans track 3
Panel: ESG integration in the bond market	Panel: Investment and engagement strategies for sovereign sustainable debt	Panel: Overcoming the headwinds facing the sustainability-linked loan market
How is the process of investor consideration of ESG in fixed income evolving? Approaches to fundamental/technical ESG analysis in both labelled and unlabelled debt What impact will CSRD and SFDR reporting have on investors' ESG analysis - how will they use the information disclosed? What are the implications and take-aways for issuers? What role can technology including AI play in ESG analysis – where can it be used to best effect? Moderator: Hans Biemans, Managing Director, Head of Sustainable Markets, ING	What is the outlook for labelled sovereign bond issuance in 2025? Will we see an increase in sovereign SLB issuance? What are the benefits and challenges of this structure for sovereign issuers and investors? How are investors approaching risk assessment and impact measurement for sovereign sustainable bonds? What impact are industry initiatives like ASCOR having in developing reliable evaluation options for sovereign transition climate efforts? How does investor engagement with sovereigns differ from other issuers – what are the challenges? How do you take into consideration countries' different starting points when evaluating their sustainability performance? Giulia Pellegrini, Lead Portfolio Manager & Managing Director for Emerging Markets Debt, Allianz Global Investors Irina Kurochkina, Portfolio Manager, Fixed Income, Aegon Asset Management Steve Williams, Global Head of Fixed Income EMEA, Nikko Asset Management	What are the barriers to growth for the SLL market – how do these both mirror and differ from the challenges facing the SLB market? How do companies evaluate the benefits and costs of SLLs vs alternative financing options? Improving quality and integrity - how can lenders and SPOs help companies to develop credible and ambitious SPTs matched with robust verifiable KPIs? What are the benefits of hybrid sustainability-linked green loan instruments and will use of this structure increase? How will the market for Sustainability Linked Loan Bonds (SLLBs) develop and what impact will this have in supporting SLL volumes and credibility? What do investors and other market participants think about the SLLB structure? Angela Brusas, Director, Funding & Investor Relations, Nordic Investment Bank

12:15

Panel: Delivering impact through social debt financing

Panel: Scaling up investment in nature and biodiversity – Debt for Nature Swaps and other innovative debt instruments

Panel: Catalysing the growth of transition loan finance

Looking beyond climate - What trends are we seeing in social bond issuance?
Food security, water, housing, education, gender equality, health, employment – what are the social risks that investors should be focused on and where can they have greatest impact?
How are issuers and investors thinking about social co-benefits and are their sustainable finance frameworks sufficiently flexible to capture these opportunities?
What are the challenges in measuring social impact especially over longer time horizons and how do you reflect that in impact reporting?

Charles Smith, Senior Funding Officer, EBRD
Saida Eggerstedt, Head of Sustainable Credit, ESG & Impact Credit Fund Manager, Schroders

What types of instruments are best suited to drive finance to nature?
How to develop and extend the use of Debt for Nature Swaps – what are the barriers to scaling up the number and size of transactions?
What are the opportunities and challenges for sovereigns, banks, investors and other participants in the deal?
How do investors analyse their risk profile and impact given their complex structure?
What role can outcome bonds play and how will this structure be developed?
What nature and biodiversity indicators do you look at? How do you measure and report impact?
Where are the key areas that can deliver co-benefits across both climate and nature?

Moderator: Gratien Davasse, Associate, Center of Expertise and Innovation, Green & Sustainable Hub, Natixis CIB

Jake Harper, Senior Investment Manager (Private Credit), Legal & General Asset Management

Development and growing interest in the ‘transition loan’ label. What could and should such instruments look like?
Update on the LMA/APLMA/LSTA initiative to develop Transition Loan Principles – what impact will this have on the sustainable loan market?
Will this provide a credible instrument to support transition in hard-to-abate sectors and help manage greenwashing risk associated with using the green label for transition investment?
What other conditions are needed to ramp up transition lending?
How can the market link transition plans with sustainable loans without excluding key participants, such as SMEs?

Moderator: Swami Venkataraman, Associate Managing Director - Sustainable Finance, Global Head of Assessments, Moody's Ratings

Hannah Vanstone, Senior Associate Director – Lead Sustainable Finance Regulatory Affairs Officer, Loan Market Association (LMA)
Henriette Kästel Bergesen, Finance Manager, Odfjell SE

13:00

Lunch

14:00

Sustainable bonds track 1: GSS bonds and Impact	Sustainable bonds track 2: Innovation, sovereigns, nature and biodiversity	Sustainable loans track
Panel: Impact measurement and reporting	Panel: Climate resilience and adaptation - Finding a home and growth in sustainable bonds	Panel: Improving transparency and impact in sustainable loans
What progress is being made in efforts to standardise impact measurement and reporting by issuers and investors? Where are the main gaps in quality and frequency of issuers’ impact reporting? How are investors bridging this data gap and what risks does this create for their own reporting? What role can SPOs play in ensuring that issuers’ impact reports are credible and robust? When analysing impact how do investors weight considerations at an entity vs. asset level? And how to measure and prioritise immediate impact vs forward-looking impact? What is the role of avoided emissions in impact investment? Anna Rudgard, Principal, Fixed Income Research Analyst, Sustainable Investing, Brown Advisory Louis Bourgeois, Impact Manager, BlueOrchard	How can sustainable bonds better support climate change adaptation? Identifying climate adaptation finance opportunities What are the main bottlenecks preventing the inclusion of more climate adaptation and resilience assets in sustainable bonds? What are the challenges in conducting investment analysis of climate adaptation and resilience projects? Looking beyond infrastructure projects to investment opportunities in nature-based solutions and social activities that promote climate resilience Isobel Edwards, Global Head of Green, Social and Impact Bond Research, Goldman Sachs Asset Management Thomas Leys, Investment Director, Fixed Income, abrdn	What can be done to improve transparency in sustainable loans? Balancing transparency in reporting with commercial confidentiality – how are the expectations of lenders, borrowers and other stakeholders changing? The increasing importance of external verification - how to ensure external review and verification is robust whilst ensuring the costs are manageable for companies Will use of CSRD reported metrics in loan targets help reduce verification costs over time?

14:45

Fireside Chat: An issuer discusses their sustainable bond programme and views on the market

Fireside Chat: The rise of blue finance – How to develop the market for blue bonds

Fireside Chat: A corporate discusses the opportunities and challenges in sustainable loan financing

15:10

Afternoon break

15:40

Industry Debate: ‘Sustainability-linked instruments have reached the point of no return’ – For or Against?

16:00

Panel: How the sustainable debt market can support and accelerate the transition

How do regional approaches to transition finance differ and how much does this matter? How can the context-specific nature of transition finance be handled in global fixed income markets?
How can existing labels be used to channel greater transition finance at an asset/project level?
What role can unlabelled debt play in decarbonising high-emitting and hard-to-abate sectors?
Would a dedicated transition label provide clarity or additional complexity for investors and issuers?
How is investor sentiment towards transition finance changing? What are the barriers preventing more dedicated transition funds at scale?
How are investors conducting transition risk analysis?
How are external providers approaching transition plan reviews and what are the key takeaways for issuers?
Do we need to focus more on identifying transition opportunities rather than risk to accelerate transition debt investment?

Jason Mortimer, Head of Sustainable Investment – Fixed Income, Nomura Asset Management

16:45

Panel: Investment opportunities in developing markets – Where can sustainable debt have the biggest impact?

What are the barriers inhibiting the flow of capital from European financial institutions to emerging market debt?
What impact will the EU's Global Green Bond Initiative and Green Coupon Facility have on the growth of the green bond market in developing countries?
What role can blended finance play as a key financing tool in developing countries? What policy incentives can be put in place to grow the use of blended finance?
As an investor what are the challenges with blended finance and emerging market debt generally - how do you evaluate the risk profile?

Théo Kotula, ESG Analyst - Sustainable Bonds, Amundi
Martijn Proos, Co-head of Emerging Market Alternative Credit, Ninety One

17:25

Chair’s closing remarks

17:30

Close of conference and networking drinks reception

Sustainable Debt EMEA 2025

Agenda