The Green Deal, a growing seed

5^TH ANNUAL SUSTAINABILITY SEMINAR

The Green Deal, a growing seed

HOW TO LEVERAGE ON REGULATORY CHALLENGES?

In 2021, DPAM is happy to celebrate its 20 years of sustainable investments. Looking back, the global approach to sustainable investments has changed tremendously: increasingly sophisticated research, growing materiality, ongoing commitment and —above all— the search for impact beyond sustainable performance are undeniably there to stay for Good. Are ambitious policy programs, in particular the Green Deal, catalysts for this impact creation?

To answer this question, we hosted our 5th Annual Sustainability Seminar “The Green Deal, a growing seed”. We highlighted the key objectives, shared practical ‘impact-on-innovation’ experiences and discussed the new fixed income instruments to participate in value creation and the road to sustainable, inclusive growth.

Read below the summary of our webinar.

Sustainable finance is changing the fabric of financial markets. We might look at this message in reverse; financial markets become key enablers for climate mitigation and adaptation.

We track ESG materiality across our investments, we measure impact and set thresholds of what we want to achieve. Engagement becomes the core of what we do every day.

We really want to become a purpose-led investor in the field of sustainable finance.

By, Peter De Coensel, Member of DPAM Management Board

KEYNOTE

“Green Deal – Environmental challenges and milestones”

Dr. Florika Fink Hooijer, Director-General, Environment Department at the EU Commission

During the keynote presentation, Dr. Florika Fink Hooijer focused on the EU green deal, as a social economic growth strategy for a regenerative economy and a different value system.

But how do we measure environmentally sustainable growth? Difficult environmental subjects, such as waste, have already been enshrined in key environmental regulations. But now, this regulation has become mainstream across all sectors, such as transport, energy, agriculture, and therefore also across physical and economic policy.

The green transformation has been created to generate growth, but also to limit biodiversity loss and halt pollution. Next to it all, when discussing all these policy strengths, we also need to talk about fiscal policy.

“With a well-designed taxonomy that resorts to subsidies and prices carbon properly, we can follow the right path forward. A fiscal framework where the cost of using and damaging natural capital is factored in and no longer ignored (so called negative externalities), will enable us to avoid unfair competition compared to sustainable production and consumption.”

Follow full presentation (06.08 – 34.03) in the recording.

ROUNDTABLE

“Act now – How are the EU’s ambitious plans inspiring innovation for companies?”

Camilla Goldbeck-Löwe, VP Corporate Sustainability at Epiroc and Lee Nurse, Business Development at Volution

During the roundtable, the speakers considered whether ESG has put innovation at the core of sustainability.

Ms. Goldbeck-Löwe and Mr. Nurse explained the ambitious plans to reduce the emissions of their respective companies and their view, as global players, on the EU plan compared to other regions’ programs. They also discussed how they measure their environmental impact.

Follow the full roundtable (34.41 – 59.58) in the recording.

DISCUSSION

“Impact driven innovation in financial instruments”

Sean Kidney, Co-founder and CEO at Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI) and Joel Prohin, Head of Portfolio management at Caisse des dépôts et consignations (CDC)

The speakers discussed whether the European regulation and the Green deal is an enabler or a headwind to their ambitions.

They both support the regulation, and like the direction in which it is going. However, they do agree that it is still a work in progress: ‘The taxonomy identifies the activities that will probably not be negatively impacted by regulation in the future. The headwinds are the usual ones, with every major change that we try to achieve in society, there will always be some opponents. The necessary changes are difficult, but they are nevertheless necessary, as there is no other path to follow.’

They also discussed how the financial instruments in place can help foster engagement across equity and fixed income asset classes. While the equity side is more sensitive to the opportunities that ESG issues offer; the bond side is often influenced by the risk control argument. The speakers further argued whether the impact will be more reserved for the equity world and looked at the role of the new EU green bonds label.

Follow the full discussion (59.59 – 60.25) in the recording.

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DPAM’s 5th Annual Sustainability Seminar ‘The Green Deal, a growing seed’

5TH ANNUAL SUSTAINABILITY SEMINAR