SUST4IN and ICEX bring innovative financial instruments to companies to mitigate climate change

Opportunities offered by green bonds and green loans in the second conference co-organized between SUST4IN and ICEX, the Spanish Export and Investment Institute

SUST4IN, in collaboration with ICEX España Exportación e Inversiones, organized the “II Climate Finance Conference: Green Bonds and other innovative instruments” at the ICEX Auditorium, a conference aimed at heads of financial departments, sustainability and business development of companies, autonomous communities and consultants. It was the second joint event and the fifth organized by SUST4IN, since 2014.

The session was inaugurated by Javier Serra, Director of Internationalization of ICEX; Valvanera Ulargui, Director General of the Spanish Office of Climate Change (OECC), and the founder and managing director of SUST4IN, Marcio Viegas.

At the opening of the conference, the Director General of Internationalization, Javier Serra, said that from ICEX, in its work to support companies in their internationalization strategies, “the activities and related services have been deepened and reinforced with the green economy and climate change. ” In this sense, he said that the objective of ICEX is “to serve as a catalyst for those public-private opportunities that arise from the implementation of actions that seek to mitigate climate change in third countries.”

With this objective, he added that “we will provide a public platform that serves to share knowledge and facilitate a network to bring the actors involved around the opportunities of this sector.”

The director of the Spanish Office of Climate Change (OECC), Valvanera Ulargui, stressed that the objective is to create a common space involving the companies and agents involved in the world and stressed that the European Commission is also committed. She has also pointed out that “we must make a great effort to be competitive” and for this we must “create a legal framework in which possible financial risks” can be managed, resulting from this new scenario.

The opening of the conference ended with the intervention of the founder and managing director of SUST4IN, Marcio Viegas, who has used his presentation to show the importance of this green bonds. He has explained in detail its operating framework, the necessary capital, its risks and its innovative aspects. And he has emphasized the idea that green bonds need “global operating standards.”

During the day, first-hand information was provided on the potential of innovative climate finance instruments such as green bonds or green loans, as well as examples of successful cases. Key national and international financial sector experts, such as BBVA, the European Investment Bank and the World Bank (IFC Treasury London), as well as Acciona and Iberdrola, practical examples of these new instruments and, above all, the opportunities and advantages they offer to the Spanish public and private sectors.

The ambitious objective behind the Paris Agreement to keep emissions below two degrees Celsius requires the implementation of numerous measures that will require trillions of euros in investment. This has led to the development of new financial instruments and an increase in demand from investors.

Among the new instruments are green bonds, a financial instrument whose use by companies as well as by cities and regions, is growing exponentially. Thus in 2016 the issue of bonds increased around 90% compared to 2015, reaching 81 billion dollars.

In Spain, the green bonds issued in February by Iberdrola for an amount of 1 billion euros and the issuance by the Community of Madrid of a sustainable bonus of 700 million euros, with an environmental and climatic component, highlight the potential of this instrument.