Green finance is maturing quickly
Be transparent. That was one of the main pieces of advice as issuers and bank representatives met in the green financing panel of Wednesday’s Treasury 360° Helsinki conference.
Green bond frameworks were one of the topics of discussion in the panel. Speakers were …
• Claire Iversenc, Head of Sustainability, Corporate Coverage EMEA, BNP Paribas,
• Catharina Belfrage Sahlstrand, Group Head of Sustainability, Handelsbanken,
• Pasi Heikkilä, Head of Treasury, Municipality Finance, and
• Rutger Källén, CFO, Hemsö Fastighets.
The panel was led by Sander van Tol of advisory firm Zanders.
One of the current issues in the field is the upcoming EU taxonomy on ESG – economic, social and governance aspects. While it is meant to support improvements in the area, it is currently calibrated in a way that sees progressive countries such as Finland and Sweden disfavoured in the real estate area.
Rutger Källén advised corporations to focus their innovation on getting their main operations sustainable rather than getting lost in exotic financial instruments. Pasi Heikkilä, too, urged a holistic take: Assess all assets in the balance sheet, not just those that are evidently “green”.
Two of the speakers were present also in a panel of the recent Treasury 360° Copenhagen conference – a session that can be viewed in full here.
News from the Treasury 360° Helsinki conference is gathered here.
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