Green Finance Conference 2018
PROGRAM (Final)
Date:Location:

Tuesday-Wednesday, 5-6 June 2018
Marina Mandarin Hotel Singapore (Leo & Capricorn Room, Level 1)

UNESCAP, UNFCCC, GFMA and ASIFMA’s two-day Green Finance Conference featured keynote
speeches and panel discussions on Day One (Growing Green) and a Catalyst Roundtable format
on day two (Green Investment Catalyst). The objective of the program was to explore how Asian
capital markets can be best leveraged to support sustainable and climate-aligned economic
growth in the region.

Day One: Growing Green
08:15-08:30

Delegates Check-in

08:30-08:45

Welcome Address• Hong Joo Hahm, Officer-in-Charge, UNESCAP• James Grabert, Director, Sustainable Development Mechanisms Programme,UNFCCC

08:45-09:00

Keynote Address• Masagos Zulkifli, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources andMinister-in-Charge of Muslim Affairs, Republic of Singapore

09:00-09:45

Panel 1: The Case for Green FinanceThis panel explored the opportunities of green finance, including how dedicatedgreen issuance and investment can benefit infrastructure and other sectors tohelp countries meet their sustainable development goals. Speakers also exploreddefinitions of “green” and emerging trends.
• Grant Kirkman, Team Leader, UNFCCC• Pierre Rousseau, Head of Global Markets APAC, and Strategic Adviser-electfor Sustainable Business, Global CIB, BNP Paribas• Christopher Flensborg, Head of Climate & Sustainable Finance, Skandinaviska
Enskilda Banken• Sameer Chopra, Managing Director, ESG Research APAC, Bank of America
Merrill Lynch• Clara Ferreira-Marques, Columnist, Reuters Breakingviews (Moderator)

09:45-10:30

Panel 2: The Regional Green Finance Market and Global Experiences
This panel discussed how to develop deep and cross-border markets for green
finance in Asia, including how regional policymakers might leverage the work
already done by the European Commission’s High Level Expert Group on
Sustainable Finance or the G20’s Sustainable Finance Study Group.
• Jeanne Stampe, Head of Asia Sustainable Finance, Global Finance Practice
Leadership Team, WWF• Sean Kidney, Co-Founder and CEO, Climate Bonds Initiative• Herry Cho, Director, Head of Sustainable Finance Asia Pacific, ING• Laura Altinger, Senior Advisor, Climate Change and Finance, UNESCAP(Moderator)

10:30-11:00

Coffee Break11:00-11:45

Panel 3: Green Bond Issuer and Underwriter Interview - Sovereigns
A panel of experts discussed the experiences of sovereign issuers andunderwriters of green bonds. The panel demonstrated the advantages of greenlabelled bonds for countries of all sizes or levels of development.
• Dominique Duval, Sustainable Banking – Head of Asia-Pacific, Credit Agricole• Antoine Aubel, Deputy Head of Economic Department for South-East Asia,
French Treasury• Rahul Ghosh, Senior Vice President, ESG and Green Bonds, Moody’s InvestorsService• Flora Chao, Global Head of Funding, Treasury Market Operations,International Finance Corporation (Moderator)

11:45-12:30

Panel 4: Green Bond Issuer and Underwriter Interview – Corporates
Corporate issuers and underwriting banks described the process for corporate
green bond issuance, including the drivers behind the decision to issue greenlabelled bonds, investor demand, use of proceeds and reporting.
• Clifford Lee, Managing Director, Head of Fixed Income, DBS• Conan Tam, Co-Head of Asia Pacific Debt Solutions, Bank of America MerrillLynch• Benjamin Lamberg, Global Head of MTNs & Private Placements, and Head ofAsia Credit, Credit Agricole• Carine de Boissezon, Finance Director, International Division, EDF• Trisha Taneja, Head of Sustainable Bonds, Americas and APAC, Sustainalytics(Moderator)

12:30-13:30

Lunch2

13:30-14:15

Panel 5: Investor Panel: Building a Sustainable Portfolio
Fund managers discussed their motivations in building sustainable portfolios,
including investor interest, expected performance of green financial instruments,
and ties to broader fiduciary responsibility.
• Jean-Marie Masse, Global Head and Chief Investment Officer, InternationalFinance Corporation• Hardik Shah, ESG Practice Manager, GMO• Alex Ng, Chief Investment Officer, Asia Pacific, BNP Paribas AssetManagement• Richard Ditizio, President and Chief Operating Officer, Milken Institute(Moderator)

14:15-15:00

Panel 6: Green Lending and Securitization
Going beyond green bonds, this panel discussed challenges and opportunities in
the green lending and securitization spaces, including the creation of Green
Lending Principles and balancing credit ratings and evaluations of “greenness.”• Juliette Macresy, Head of Greater China and South East Asia Market, VigeoEiris• Peeyush Pallav, Senior Vice President, Structured Debt Solutions, DBS• Cedric Rimaud, Director of Emerging Markets Research, Gimme Credit• Jay Mariyappan, Managing Director, Sindicatum Sustainable Resources(Moderator)

15:00-15:30

Coffee Break

15:30-16:15

Panel 7: Public Policies and Incentives to Support Green FinanceThis panel considered policy measures from the public sector to support thedevelopment of green finance, such as prudential or fiduciary regulatory
frameworks, grant schemes and tax incentives, and investments to ensure asteady pipeline of investable projects.
• Nathalie Aufauvre, Director General for Financial Stability and Operations,
Banque de France; Central Banks and Supervisors Network for Greening theFinancial System• Stewart James, Head of Group Public Affairs, Asia Pacific, HSBC
• Alexander Barkawi, Founder and Director, Council on Economic Policies• Adam Cotter, Head of Asia, Official Monetary and Financial Institutions
Forum (Moderator)

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16:15-17:00

Panel 8: Day One Takeaways and Introduction to the GIC Roundtable
As a lead into Day Two, this panel reflected upon the opportunities highlighted during theday to address the ‘what’ the ‘who’ and ‘how’ on growing and expanding upon green
finance in promoting sustainable and low-carbon development across the Asia-Pacificregion. Moderators from earlier panels joined to comment on conclusions from their owndiscussions.

•••••
17:00-17:05

Laura Altinger, Senior Advisor, Climate Change and Finance, UNESCAP
Adam Cotter, Head of Asia, Official Monetary and Financial Institutions
ForumYossef Zahar, Senior Finance Expert, RCC/IGES
Grant Kirkman, Team Leader, UNFCCC
Mark Austen, CEO, GFMA and ASIFMA (Moderator)

Closing Remarks• Mark Austen, CEO, GFMA and ASIFMA4

Day Two: Asia-Pacific Green Investment Catalyst Roundtables
A Green Investment Catalyst Roundtable is a three-phase process comprising Prepare - Catalyze Continue. The first Asia GIC involved the development of climate-aligned finance initiatives,
investment vehicles, programmes or norms. The roundtable took this process further towards
ensuring the initiatives result in tangible investments and frameworks ‘on the ground’ withclimate outcomes contributing to green growth in Asia.
08:45-09:00

Delegates Check-in

09:00-09:30

Opening Remarks
Set the scene for the first GIC and its role of the UN system in catalyzing finance forclimate and sustainable development in Asia. Under a global set of defining objectives,
speakers introduced the why and how financial systems and flows would need to bealigned with opportunities for green growth to achieve national priorities, for regional andglobal scale benefits. Included national development priorities and implementation ofgreen growth in a post-Paris world••

James Grabert, Director, Sustainable Development Mechanisms Programme,
UNFCCC
Tetsuo Kuyama, Director, IGES Regional Centre

09:30-10:30

Session 1: Sustainable Bonds for MFI Financing
Capital markets provide an important opportunity source of finance foraddressing climate, resilience and social development. The roundtable offered aninsight into the structuring of a capital markets funded facility for regional multilateral financing institute (MFI’s) financing. Various aspects of the structure werediscussed including underlying sustainable projects, capital markets and investors’
readiness for the asset class, MFI’s financing needs and supporting required
mechanism such as Guarantees. The session offered an opportunity to hear fromkey local financial institutions, financial tool providers, Investors and project
developers about their strategies and planed structure to move towards
sustainability through capital markets.
• Kiyoshi Nishimura, CEO, Credit Guarantee & Investment Facility, Manila• Adisorn V. Singhsacha, Founder and CEO, Twin Pine Group, Bangkok• Tal Brod, Managing Director, Mexichem/Netafim• Neal Youngquist, Senior Advisor, UN Capital Development Fund, Myanmar• Yossef Zahar, Senior Finance Expert, RCC/IGES (Moderator)

10:30-11:00

Coffee Break5

11:00-12:00

Session 2: The Emergence of ASEAN Green Loans
This session provided a window into a green loan structure for on-lending andfilling the green financing gap in smaller markets. Adequate financial returns forparticipants is the key challenge. The session therefore discussed all the elements
in making this into a successful initiative, such as cross border loan provision,green lending considerations, second opinion providers, credit enhancement,
portfolio diversification and support.
• John Groesbeek, Acting Deputy Treasurer & Head Syndications – Asia Pacific,
International Finance Corporation• Octavio B. Peralta, Secretary General, Association of Development Financing
Institutions in Asia and the Pacific• Bruce McKenzie, Associate Director, Institutional Banking, ANZ• Trisha Taneja, Head of Sustainable Practice, Americas and APAC,Sustainalytics• Jean-Christophe Manghardt, Initiative Lead, ING Innovation Representative
for the Sustainable Collective Finance Asia (SFCA)• Gaurav Kwatra, Principal, Oliver Wyman• Yossef Zahar, Senior Finace Expert, RCC/ IGES (Moderator)

12:00-13:15

Lunch

13:15-14:30

Session 3: A New Green Lending Facility for Asia Pacific
ESCAP is working to strengthen the capacity of financial institutions in the AsiaPacific region to develop an enabling policy environment that promotes private
investments in climate change mitigation and adaptation projects. Challenges
discussed in the session include: cost of capital, FX hedging, tax considerations,capital controls, credit enhancement.
• Jenny Koh, Regional Director, Asia, GuarantCo• Amir Masood Khan, CEO/President, First Micro Finance Bank Ltd.
• Umair Javed, Director, OBOR Development Corporation, Pakistan• Saleem Zia, Chief Operating Officer, Pakistan Mortgage Refinance Facility• Cedric Rimaud, Director of Emerging Markets Research, Gimme Credit(Moderator)

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14:30-15:15

Session 4: The Role of Asia-Pacific Green Bond Standards
This roundtable created awareness about international Green Bond Standards
and how these could serve as a strong signal for the broader investmentcommunity. The region is ready to scale-up green bonds and to harmonise
existing standards to facilitate access to international investors. Similarly to theadoption of the ASEAN standards, the wider Asia-Pacific region can benefit from a
region-wide green bond standards. This roundtable discussed how this could beachieved on the basis of relevant case studies.
• Esther An, Chief Sustainability Officer, City Developments Limited• Mark Robinson, Manager, Sustainability Services, DNV GL Business Assurance• Frederic Samama, Co-head of Institutional Clients, Amundi AssetManagement• Emmanuel Buttin, Policy Expert – Financial Regulation and Green Finance,
Banque de France• Rebecca Wright, Director, Asia Investor Group on Climate Change(Moderator)

15:15-15:45

Coffee Break

15:45-16:30

Session 5: Impact and Compliance Monitoring of Green Bonds
Impact and compliance monitoring of proceeds, and the environmental and social
performance is gaining importance in green bond markets, and helps investors
measure the positive externalities of their investments. Continuous monitoring isalso critical to ensure compliance with the basic commitment and to maintain
trust among investors, contributing in this way to increase the demand.
• Caroline Waqabaca, Chief Manager Financial Markets, Reserve Bank of Fiji
• Juliette Macresy, Head of Greater China and South East Asia Market, VigeoEiris• Sean Kidney, Co-Founder and CEO, Climate Bonds Initiative• Lise Pretorius, Sustainable Finance Engagement Manager, WWF• Grant Kirkman, Team Leader, UNFCCC (Moderator)

16:30-17:00

Closing: Making Green Finance Structures a Reality in the Region
In an interactive tour-de-table format, this session kicked off the third phase Continue inthe three-stage process in the Green Investment Catalyst process (Prepare - Catalyze –Continue). It sought closing remarks feedback and endorsement by partners andpotential funders on the proposed initiatives, facilities and programmes of work
discussed in Sessions 1 to 5. It included feasibility, refinements, donors, funding, probono services in steps towards their implementation. It also included a roadmap towards
recommendation and suggestions for other partners and funders for further
development.
• James Grabert, Director, Sustainable Development Mechanisms Programme,UNFCCC

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