Investment and climate change: cautious optimism

Madrid, 01 December 2020. The company specialized in sustainability SUST4IN and Spainsif, the Spanish Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment, have organized the webinar “Investment and climate change” in which an homonymous study has been presented and discussed how investments can contribute to the fight against climate change and support green recovery.

The president of Spainsif, Joaquín Garralda, welcomed the participants and invited all to  read of the report commissioned by Spainsif “Investment and climate change”: “When we talk about climate change, financial, scientific, regulatory and individual issues are mixed. With this study we want to contribute to providing a more global perspective on the impact it has on sustainable finance ”. The study has been presented by the founder and managing director of SUST4IN, Marcio Viegas, highlighting its most important findings and recommendations, such as smart regulation, greater awareness and a just transition.

Next, the first keynote speaker, Marcel Haag, Director of Horizontal Policies of DG FISMA of the European Commission, spoke about the European action in this matter, from the disclosure of non-financial information or the new taxonomy for sustainable activities, to sovereign green bond issues. Regarding the study, Haag has highlighted the investment opportunities and the significant and growing demand for green financial products, in particular for green bonds, to then relate it to European action in this area: “The challenge of climate change and environmental degradation has not disappeared with the pandemic. The pandemic has been a reminder of our increasingly precarious relationship with nature. The European Commission’s commitment to greening the economy remains strong.”

Lara Altable, SRI Policies & Stewardship Manager of Santander Asset Management, Mar Asunción, Head of the WWF Climate and Energy Program, Manuel Gutiérrez Mellado, Director of BlackRock and Mario Sánchez, Secretary of Public Policies and Social Protection of the trade union national federation Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) participated in the round table moderated by Javier Garayoa, Managing Director of Spainsif, debating some findings and recommendations of the study. Altable has highlighted the upward trend in capital mobilization linked to climate change and the growing interest by retail investors, Mar Asunción, has mentioned the need to increase the demand for different products to accelerate the decarbonization of the economy. Gutiérrez-Mellado has urged all to see climate change not as a risk, but as an investment opportunity that must be promoted, and Sánchez has insisted on the key role that regulators are playing to promote climate investments and on the change Spain has undergone as a result of the regulatory push for sustainable finance.

Hugo Morán, Spain’s Secretary of State for the Environment, was the other keynote speaker, and has highlighted the enormous opportunity of the European Green Deal and reiterated that “we are in front of the greatest deployment of investments in history ”. In his presentation of the tools presented by Spain to address climate change, such as the National Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change or the Circular Economy Strategy, and the opportunities of this crisis to take advantage of finances in a productive way, he has declared: “Reaching an carbon neutral model as soon as possible is an unprecedented opportunity to transform and modernize our economic systems to provide quality employment, energy security, health and innovation. The economic recovery in which we are already working must serve to lay the foundations for a sustainable future ”.

Finally, Viegas has concluded: “The investment needs in mitigation and urgently in adaptation are enormous, the good news is that there has never been so much capital available and the regulation seems to respond to the demands of various stakeholders.” To which Garayoa has added: “As we have seen in the debate, all stakeholders in sustainable investment are aligned with the objectives of climate change”.