October 3 – 4, 2024
Sheraton Dubrovnik Riviera Hotel / Dubrovnik, Croatia
FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT
Symposium on Sustainable Finance: from setting up the Rules to Impact, Verification, and Reporting
Exploring the linkages between ESG and sustainable finance and existing mandatory environmental and social assessment and management tools in the EU and beyond
Hosted by:
Regional Sustainable Finance and Impact Assessment knowledge-sharing platform (RSFIA)
Croatian Association of Experts in Nature and Environmental Protection (HUSZPO)
In cooperation with:
European Investment Bank
United Nations Development Program
World Bank
Supported by:
Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development, Croatia
INTRODUCTION
Environmental authorities and professionals witness a fast-growing range of sustainable finance tools that integrate financial and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria into core business and investment decisions made by financial market participants—asset managers, investment funds, retail banks, investment insurers, stock exchanges, green bond issuers, and individual investors.
To ensure an adequate analytical rigor of these tools, the EU has embarked on an ambitious sustainable finance agenda that:
- defines activities that the financial market participants can label as environmentally sustainable1;
- requires financial institutions to disclose their sustainability-related risks, exposures, and opportunities to investors2;
- improves the quality and comparability of sustainability reporting by large undertakings3 through comprehensive corporate sustainability reporting standards4.
INVITATION
Many sustainable finance systems will need to interact with environmental impact assessments, industrial emissions permitting, strategic environmental assessments, and other well-established environmental assessment and management systems that form the standard investment decision-making processes in the EU and other jurisdictions. Some of these novel tools might also need to interplay with environmental and social requirements used by the multilateral development banks (EIB, EBRD, World Bank, etc.) or United Nations agencies and global vertical funds that support sustainable finance mobilization outside the EU's borders.
The first conference on "Environmental Assessments and the European Green Deal '22" (Vodice, Croatia, September 2022) and its follow-up workshop on the "Practical linkages between the EU Taxonomy and EIA processes" (Zagreb, Croatia, December 2023) explored these linkages and highlighted the need of further in-depth discussion on the optimal synchronization of all these tools.
The upcoming symposium “Sustainable Finance: from setting-up the Rules to Impact, Verification and Reporting” aims to unpack and facilitate linkages between the sustainability reporting standards and EU Taxonomy requirements with the established tools that support public sector decision-making on the six environmental objectives (climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation, sustainable use and protection of water and marine resources, transition to a circular economy, pollution prevention and control, protection and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems) and the social requirements embedded in the EU sustainable finance architecture.
The symposium will offer space for engaging discussions, expert panels, and informative presentations on these topics. It invites financial sector participants and regulatory authorities, environmental authorities and experts, and development agencies that support sustainable development in the region, EU, and beyond to come and share their expertise and experience and stimulate thinking about next-generation tools that seamlessly connect sustainable finance agenda with mainstream environmental decision-making practices.
PARTNERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
The Regional Sustainable Finance and Impact Assessment knowledge-sharing platform (RSFIA) is an open-ended partnership of organizations that explores opportunities for connecting the private sector sustainable finance systems with public sector environmental decision-making processes.
For more information about participation in the RSFIA and sponsorship opportunities for the Dubrovnik symposium, please contact the RSFIA secretariat:
RSFIA Secretariat
c/o Croatian Association of Experts in Nature and Environmental Protection (HUSZPO)
Berislavićeva 6, Zagreb, Croatia
1 Done primarily through regulations on the EU Taxonomy of sustainable economic activities.
2 Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation.
3 Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive.
4 European Sustainability Reporting Standards
