International Finance Forum 2021 Discusses the Business of Global Climate Change

GUANGZHOU, China, Dec. 10, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Co-hosted by International Finance Forum (IFF) and the Paulson Institute, a plenary session invited leaders from energy, environment and finance to share their thoughts on the business of global climate change on December 4 moderated by Deborah Lehr, IFF Board Member, Vice Chairman and Executive Director of the Paulson Institute.

Key speakers include:

• Ambassador Yasser El-Naggar, CEO, EN Investment and Former Principal Deputy Minister of Planning, Monitoring, and Administrative Reform
• Bindu N. Lohani, IFF Academic Committee Member, Former Vice President of Asian Development Bank
• XU Lin, Chairman, China-U.S. Green Fund
• Sonja Gibbs, Managing Director and Head of Sustainable Finance for Global Policy Initiatives, Institute of International Finance
• Lai Xiaoming, Chairman of Shanghai Environment and Energy Exchange, Head of the National Carbon Market Trading Center
• Kyung-Ah Park, Managing Director of ESG Investment Management, Temasek

In his speech, Bindu Lohani said climate change issues require both public and private sectors to coordinate efforts to scale up technology investment and drive innovation. The public sector should make infrastructure more adaptable and resilient to climate change effects while developing more bankable projects for the private sector and creating an innovative funding structure that meets the needs of private-public investment.

Sonja Gibbs identified three drivers fueling the private sector's interest in managing climate risks, decarbonization and the business of climate change: "bottom-up" demands from their clients for climate-friendly products and services; "top-down" regulations that require companies to disclose their climate-related measures and actions; internal commitment emanating from companies pledging to curtail their carbon footprint.

ESG capital flow has accelerated in spite of the impact of the pandemic this year, and ESG investment will grow as financial communities ramp up net-zero efforts. However, Kyung-Ah Park explained the measures that could facilitate the global transition to net zero. First, more governments should join in to establish a carbon-pricing system. Second is financial structure innovation. Finally, she emphasized that global coordination and partnership are the important drivers to bring greater financial ability across the market.

With China's carbon market in motion to incentivize climate-sensitive companies to reduce the intensity of emissions, Lai Xiaoming stated the market should extend the system beyond the power sector to other industries, including China's eight energy-intensive industries (Non-ferrous smelting, building materials, petrochemical, chemical, paper, aviation), non-compliant companies, and financial industries.

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