Sustainable Finance Society - College of Europe

Join the COE Sustainable Finance Society for its first official event of the year, in collaboration with the COE Energy Group and the COE Turkish Society.

Guests include:
📌 Rector Federica Mogherini
📌 Ambassador Mithat Rende, Former Chief Climate Negotiator of Türkiye
📌Ambassador Mehmet Kemal Bozay, Permanent Representation of Türkiye to the EU

⏰ 16:00 - 17:00 (CET)

We hope to see you there! 🌱🇪🇺

March 23 marked the end of the Sustainable Finance Summit! A huge thank you to Prof Gianfranco Gianfrate for his excellent keynote speech and to our four panellists Eila Kreivi, Paul Hiebert, Sean Kidney, and Michael Wilkins for their thought-provoking debate on the risks and opportunities of green bonds!

Thank you as well to our board members Daniela Olivia Ghicajanu and Marlon Hilden for moderating the panel discussion yesterday, to Etto Gejadze for once again managing the (many!) inputs and questions from the audience, and to our president Aymeric Amand for his closing remarks.

Finally, a warm thank you to all of you who contributed to making this event not only possible, but indeed a great success: to the speakers’ assistants and support teams, to the College of Europe administration, and to the 100 different students, alumni and staff members who joined the Sustainable Finance Summit over the past two days!

We hope you all enjoyed the Sustainable Finance Summit as much as we did, and we hope to see you again next year!

A massive thank you to our panellists Sirpa Pietikäinen, Paul Tang, Helena Viñes Fiestas, and Rachel Bonfante for the very interesting debates on the EU taxonomy, and to our keynote speaker Katherine Power for her brilliant intervention!

Following our president, Aymeric Amand opening remarks, our colleagues Asdin El Habbassi and Jens Lapointe-Rohde moderated the panel discussion, while Etto Gejadze ensured that the 70 students, alumni, and staff members of the College of Europe who joined the Sustainable Finance Summit yesterday were able to ask questions directly to our speakers.

We will continue with the second part of our programme tonight, with the much-awaited keynote speech from Prof Gianfranco Gianfrate and our second-panel discussion on the risks and opportunities of green bonds, with Eila Kreivi, Paul Hiebert, Sean Kidney, and Michael Wilkins.

Our biggest and most important event of the year is taking place tonight at the College of Europe! Please find below the programme for the 2021 Sustainable Finance Summit.

The Summit will include 2 keynote speeches as well as 2 high-level panel discussions, featuring: Katherine Power, Gianfranco Gianfrate, Sirpa Pietikäinen, Paul Tang, Helena Viñes Fiestas, Rachel Bonfante, Eila Kreivi, Paul Hiebert, Sean Kidney, Michael Wilkins.

We look forward to seeing you there! 🌿

Sustainable Finance Summit Registration:
https://tinyurl.com/sustainablefinancesummit

Introducing our keynote speaker for the first panel of The Sustainable Finance Summit, Katherine Power.
Katherine is responsible for sustainable finance as well as sanctions and anti-money laundering in the Cabinet of Commissioner McGuinness. Previously, she worked in the European Parliament as an advisor to Ms. McGuinness in the Environment and Agriculture Committees. Katie is a graduate of the University of Limerick, Ireland, and the College of Europe, Natolin.

Sustainable Finance Summit Registration:
https://tinyurl.com/sustainablefinancesummit

Introducing our keynote speaker for the second panel of The Sustainable Finance Summit, Gianfranco Gianfrate!
Gianfranco is a Full Professor of Finance at EDHEC Business School and a Prince of Wales Sustainability Fellow at the University of Cambridge. He is also a board director of GRASFI (the Global Research Alliance for Sustainable Finance and Investment) and a member of Erasmus University’s Platform for Sustainable Value Creation. Prior to joining EDHEC Business School, he held teaching and research positions at Erasmus University (Netherlands), Harvard University (USA), and Bocconi University (Italy). Gianfranco also has extensive experience in the financial industry, having worked, among others, for Deloitte Corporate Finance (Italy), Federated Hermes (UK), and iStarter (UK). He holds a BA and a Ph.D. in Business Administration from Bocconi University and a Master in Public Administration from Harvard University.

Sustainable Finance Summit Registration:
https://tinyurl.com/sustainablefinancesummit

Introducing our panelist Sirpa Pietikäinen. Sirpa is a Finnish member of the European People's Party (EPP) in the European parliament. Ms. Pietikäinen is the former Finnish Minister of Environment (1991-1995). Her career at the Finnish parliament is extensive, ranging from the year 1983 to 2003. At the European parliament, Ms. Pietikäinen is a member of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON) and substitute member of the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee (ENVI), Special Committee on Tax Rulings as well as of the Women’s Right and Gender Equality Committee (FEMM). In the ENVI-committee she has been responsible for her own-initiative report on Circular Economy. As a rapporteur of the resolution on the circular economy, she has given hundreds of speeches about eco-design, waste reduction, and policies supporting growth in circular economic practices. She was also the EPP-shadow person attending the work of the Special Committee on the Financial, Economic, and Social Crisis. A graduate from the Helsinki School of Economics, Ms. Pietikäinen has MSc (Business) and still teaches university courses on negotiation theory and practices.

Sustainable Finance Summit Registration:
https://tinyurl.com/sustainablefinancesummit

Introducing our panelist Helena Viñes Fiestas. Helena leads on BNPP AM’S policy and stewardship activities (engagement with companies, proxy voting on Sustainability, including engagement with policymakers. As Deputy Global Head of Sustainability, Helena plays a critical role in the design, development, and implementation of BNPP AM’s Global Sustainability Strategy. She is a Senior public policy adviser on sustainable finance to BNP Paribas Group. She has been nominated Rapporteur of one of the 5 working groups of the EU Platform on Sustainable Finance and had been a member of the Technical Expert Group on Sustainable Finance whose role is to assist the European Commission in the development of EU taxonomy and the implementation of the EC Action Plan as well as to the AMF Comite de Climat et Finance Durable.
Helena also represents BNPP AM in the EFAMA committee on Stewardship and ESG, is a board member of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC), and sits on a number of additional committees, including the Sustainable Stock Exchanges Green Finance Advisory Group, PRI Policy Reference Group and the Technical Advisory Group of the LSE-led Transition Pathway Initiative. She has eighteen years experience of working in responsible business and sustainable investment. Helena joined the firm in 2011 and led the Sustainability Research team until 2019.
Previously, Helena led Oxfam's advocacy work on responsible investment and engagement with institutional investors in support of poverty reduction. She is the author of numerous papers and articles, including a book. She earned a BA in Economics and a postgraduate in Latin American Economics from the University of Barcelona (Spain), followed by an MSc in Development Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Sustainable Finance Summit Registration:
https://tinyurl.com/sustainablefinancesummit

Introducing our panelist Paul Hiebert. Paul heads the Systemic Risk and Financial Institutions Division of the European Central Bank (ECB). In this role, he leads systemic risk analysis for the euro area feeding into the ECB’s flagship Financial Stability Review, as well as macroprudential policy for the largest euro area banks. His current role builds on over 20 years of experience within the ECB, the International Monetary Fund, the Reserve Bank of Australia, and the Canadian Department of Finance in various capacities—spanning economic, financial, and policy functions for a wide range of countries. He has published a diverse set of topics, including financial cycles, global banking, climate change, macroprudential policy, housing markets, and fiscal policy. He holds an M.A. in Economics from McGill University in Montréal.

Sustainable Finance Summit Registration:
https://tinyurl.com/sustainablefinancesummit

Introducing our panelist Rachel Bonfante. Rachel is responsible for leading and advancing the company’s sustainability reporting, human rights, and emerging ESG issues at Chevron. Prior to this assignment, Rachel headed the EU Affairs Office for Chevron in Brussels, Belgium. Rachel began her career in government relations with internships in Washington DC, before working as a consultant (Brussels, Jakarta), and then in EU Affairs for Norsk Hydro (now Equinor). Before joining Chevron, she was Deputy Director with the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP), the global upstream association. Rachel holds a BA in English Literature and American Studies from the University of Wales, Swansea, and an MPhil in International Relations from Trinity Hall, Cambridge.

Sustainable Finance Summit Registration:
https://tinyurl.com/sustainablefinancesummit

Meet Michael Wilkins - our panelist for the Sustainable Finance Summit! Michael is a Managing Director at S&P Global Ratings based in London. His experience at S&P Global Ratings includes three years as global head of Sustainable Finance and seven years as head of Infrastructure Finance Ratings, the analytical group within S&P Global Ratings which covers utilities, project finance, PPPs, and transportation in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Michael was also co-head of the Corporate Securitisation group. Michael’s expertise encompasses the European power, water, environmental, transportation, and social infrastructure sectors. Previously, Michael worked for Water UK, the trade body representing the UK water industry. He is a visiting fellow at Cambridge University Judge Business School where he leads the Sustainable Finance elective on the Masters of Finance program. He is also a frequent guest lecturer at the London Business School MBA program, Oxford University’s Smith School of Enterprise & the Environment, UCL, the London School of Economics. He is a member of the FSB Taskforce on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), the G20 Sustainable Finance Study Group (SFSG), the advisory council of the Smith School Sustainable Finance Programme, and the Climate Bonds Initiative.

Sustainable Finance Summit Registration:
https://tinyurl.com/sustainablefinancesummit

Introducing our panelist Eila Kreivi. She is Director and Head of the Capital Markets Department at the European Investment Bank. Previously, she worked as Head of Funding for the Americas, Asia & Pacific at the EIB. Before joining the financing arm of the European Union in 1995, Eila Kreivi worked at the Union Bank of Finland and Société Générale, in Helsinki and in Paris. She holds a Master of Science degree in Economics from the University of Abo Akademi in Finland. In addition to her native language of Finnish, she is fluent in English, French, and Swedish. Eila Kreivi Chaired the Executive Committee of the Green Bond Principles in 2015-2018. She has represented the EIB at the EU High-level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance in 2017-2018, established by the European Commission. Currently, Ms. Kreivi is an alternate member of the Board of Directors of the European Investment Fund (EIF). She also represents the EIB at the Technical Expert Group on Sustainable Finance created by the European Commission in 2018. In July 2020, she was elected as a member of the Board of International Capital Market Association (ICMA).

Want to hear more about the risks and opportunities of Green Bond? Register to the Sustainable Finance Summit now!

Sustainable Finance Summit Registration:
https://tinyurl.com/sustainablefinancesummit

Introducing our panelist Paul Tang. He is a Member of the European Parliament for the Partij van de Arbeid (PvdA) since July 2014, as part of the Group of Socialists and Democrats. He received a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Amsterdam and worked for the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis before entering the Dutch parliament in 2007. Here, Paul Tang was the spokesperson for financial and fiscal affairs from 2007 until 2010, right through the financial crisis. In 2014, He led the list of the PvdA for the European elections. In 2019 he was re-elected. Paul Tang mainly works on economic and financial affairs (ECON), with a focus on fair taxation and sustainable finance, and the role of data in our society (LIBE). Since September 2020, Tang is acting as chair of the subcommittee on taxation (FISC).

Sustainable Finance Summit Registration:
https://tinyurl.com/sustainablefinancesummit

Introducing our panelist Sean Kidney. Sean is CEO of the Climate Bonds Initiative, an international NGO, working to mobilise global capital for climate action. Projects include a green bond definition and certification scheme with $34 trillion of assets represented on its Board; working with the Chinese central bank on how to grow green bonds in China; market development programs in Brazil, Mexico, ASEAN, and Africa; and market tracking services for the green bonds industry. He is a member of the European Commission's Platform on Sustainable Finance, and was a member of its predecessors, the 2017 EU High-Level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance and the EU Technical Expert Group on Sustainable Finance. He is also a member of green finance committees in China, India, Mexico, and Kazakhstan. Sean is also a Professor in Practice at SOAS University of London.

We are delighted to announce our first and biggest event of the year!

The Sustainable Finance Summit will offer students and alumni of the College of Europe the opportunity to directly attend debates between high-ranking EU officials and leading experts on topical issues related to sustainable finance. The Summit will include 1-2 keynote speech(es) (TBC) as well as 2 high-level panel discussions.

The opening speech will take place on Monday, March 22 at 7:30 p.m. (CET), followed by the first panel discussion, which will focus on the EU taxonomy of sustainable performance. The Summit will resume the next day (Tuesday, March 23) at 7:30 p.m. (CET), with a second panel that will discuss the risks and opportunities associated with green bonds.

Stay tuned for more details!🌿

Nous sommes heureux de vous présenter les membres du conseil d'administration de l’association étudiante sur la finance durable du Collège de l'Europe!

Notre équipe partage un grand intérêt pour les débats concernant la croissance économique durable et le potentiel de la finance durable comme outil de transition vers une économie neutre pour le climat. C'est la première fois que des étudiants du College of Europe se réunissent pour former une société entièrement dédiée à ce sujet.

Notre équipe réunit un large éventail d'horizons et de disciplines ainsi que des cultures et des nationalités différentes. Par ordre alphabétique: Aymeric Amand (POL), Sam Bowers (MATA-POL), Asdin El Habbassi (ECO-EEIB), Eteri Gejadze (ECO-EEIB), Daniela-Olivia Ghicajanu (LAW), Marlon Hilden (ECO-EPPA), Jens Lapointe-Rohde (ECO-EPPA).

Bien que les circonstances actuelles nous imposent certaines contraintes et défis, nous avons prévu toute une série d'activités passionnantes pour le reste de l'année. Suivez-nous sur les réseaux sociaux pour plus de détails concernant nos prochains événements – dont le Sustainable Finance Summit (22-23 mars 2021) - ainsi que des mises à jour régulières sur les derniers progrès et tendances dans le secteur.

Meet the board members of the CoE Sustainable Finance Society!

Our team shares a keen interest in the debates surrounding sustainable economic growth and the potential of sustainable finance as a tool to transition to a climate-neutral economy. This is the first time students of the College of Europe have come together to form a society that is entirely dedicated to this topic.

Our team brings together a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines as well as different cultures and nationalities. In alphabetical order: Aymeric Amand (POL), Sam Bowers (MATA-POL), Asdin El Habbassi (ECO-EEIB), Eteri Gejadze (ECO-EEIB), Daniela-Olivia Ghicajanu (LAW), Marlon Hilden (ECO-EPPA), Jens Lapointe-Rohde (ECO-EPPA).

Though the current circumstances impose certain constraints and challenges, we have planned a series of exciting activities for the rest of the year. Stay tuned for more details regarding our upcoming events – including the Sustainable Finance Summit (22-23 March 2021) – as well as regular updates on the latest developments and trends in the sector.