Programme

The direction of innovation is just as important as its rate. Societal challenges can help steer this ‘directionality’ so that innovation outcomes lead to more inclusive and sustainable growth. Concrete targets—missions-- to tackle societal challenges, such as those expressed in the Sustainable Development Goals, can help steer innovation. Mission oriented innovation requires different sectors (from transport, to nutrition and digital), different actors (public, private, third sector), and different disciplines to invest—and the use of policy levers to inspire multiple bottom up solutions. Technological, organisational and institutional innovations are key in this process.

Professor Mariana Mazzucato, UCL Professor and Director of the , will discuss the role for governments in stepping up to the role of the ‘investor of first resort’ and moving beyond fixing market failures towards one of actively co-shaping and co-creating new landscapes. She will clarify how this can be done—focussing on the green missions— with examples of what works, what does not drawing on international experiences and lessons from financial institutions willing to provide strategic long-term finance.

If we are falling short of the pace of change required to maintain temperatures below 1.5 C, what policy and investment opportunities are needed for more radical action to catalyse transformative, sustainable finance? Delivering on urgent climate goals means a systemic shift of trillions of dollars towards low-emission and resilient investment. But this can only happen with the right conditions – institutional capacity, enabling environment or investor incentives. This ‘rewiring the rules of the game’ will help will shift finance and ensure that capital is increasingly willing and able to invest over the longer timeframes needed for transformational sustainable investment projects seeking finance.

Sandrine Dixson-Decleve, EIT Climate-KIC advisor, EIT Climate-KIC representative to the EU Technical Expert Group on Taxonomy and Co-President of the Club of Rome, will moderate a lively discussion between panellists from across the institutional, policy and business space to explore current and future policy commitments and financial system activity.

• Molly Scott-Cato, MEP
• Martin Spolc, Head of the CMU Unit
• Nancy Saich, Chief Climate Change Advisor, EIB
• Mariana Mazzucato, UCL Professor, Founder of Institute for Innovation & Public Purpose
• Vicki Plater, Director Growth and Public Services, NZ Treasury
• Sasja Beslik, Head of Group Sustainable Finance, Nordea

In the wake of the Taskforce for Climate Related Financial Disclosure recommendations, investors and companies are increasingly aware of their obligations to disclose climate risks. An important part of this disclosure includes understanding scenario analysis, as well as risk reporting. Two Climate KIC partners, ISS Ethix and CDP, will present this Masterclass in scenario analysis and risk reporting with the outcomes to: the concept of scenario analysis, the drivers behind the current focus (TCFD, EC Action Plan, etc.) and its value for financial institutions; the different approaches to scenario analysis currently offered in the market; approaches on how investors would / could use existing solutions; the newly developed TCFD-aligned sector questionnaires, which contribute to TCFD-aligned disclosure.

Speakers:

• Tony Rooke, Technical Director, CDP
• Friedrik Lundin, Associate Vice-President, ISS Institutional Shareholder Services

Securing finance, the terms, the risks and the type of support as a start-up is often a determining factor in whether or not climate-related starts-ups are successful.

Naomi Naidoo Community Manager, Finance Innovation Lab will be joined by the EIT Climate-KIC Alumni Association, exploring the incubator, policy and investor perspectives. Each alumnus, working on topics including women in finance and impact investment, will pitch their projects in this context.

Speakers:

• Naomi Naidoo, community manager, Finance Innovation Lab
• Adnan Sabir, EIT Climate-KIC Alumni Association
• Leeor Groen, EIT Climate-KIC Alumni Association

Most of the largest companies in the world now account and report on the emissions from their direct operations, Scopes 1 and 2, but there is still a gap in accounting on emissions along the value chain. These often represent a company’s biggest greenhouse gas impacts, which means companies have been missing out on significant opportunities for improvement.

Building of the success of a later stage innovation project, EIT Climate KIC partner, Gold Standard will present a framework for how Scope 3 emissions should be accounted for and the wider benefits that can be claimed, with the aim to take these skills and knowledge back to their respective organisations and be able to assess whether and how to apply for their own businesses

Speakers
• Owen Hewlett, Chief Technical Officer, Gold Standard

Self-reported climate-related financial data can often be incomplete, and is not always comparable due to inconsistency and a lack of transparency in some areas. But, to make the best decisions, investors require reliable, consistent, comparable and complete data. The Great Debate, a traditional Oxford-style debate, brings together experts and academics to pose the pros and cons of self-reporting, asking the question, can it ever be truly effective for investors?

Panelists:

• Andreas Hoepner, Professor of Operational Risk, Banking & Finance at University College Dublin (UCD)
• Isabelle Laurent, Deputy Treasurer and Head of Funding, EBRD
• Jakob Thoma, Managing Director, 2dii
• Manuel Coslier, Equity Portfolio Manager, MIROVA
• Hanna Waltsgott, Responsible Investment Analyst, Kempen Capital Management
• Thomas O’Neill, Research Director, Influence Map
• Professor Michael Mainelli, Director, Z/Yen

Where should investors should be putting their money to make a real impact when it comes to climate change? Shifting the investment perspective from risk to opportunity can create an unexpected leverage point that just might have the answer.

Dennis Pamlin is Senior Advisor to The Research Institute of Sweden (RI.SE) and is a pivotal figure in Mission Innovation (MI), a global initiative including the EU and 23 other countries with the aim of accelerating clean energy innovation. Together with Andrew Parry, Head of Sustainable Investing at Hermes Investment Management, Pamlin will introduce the MI ‘avoided emissions framework’, and set out how it plans to rapidly identify and scale up a selection of investor-appealing 1.5C-compatible solutions with public and private capital.

Discussion will be opened up to the audience, facilitated by EIT Climate-KIC advisor to the EU Sustainable Finance Technical Expert Group Sandrine Dixson-Declève.

• Dennis Pamlin, Senior Advisor, Research Institutes Sweden (RISE)
• Andrew Parry, Head of Sustainable Investment, Hermes Investment Management
• Moderator: Sandrine Dixson-Declève, EIT Climate-KIC Advisor to the EU Sustainable Finance Technical Expert Group, Co-President, Club of Rome

Climate change is already starting to impact the level of physical climate risks our communities face today. Risks like flood, wildfire and hurricane are changing under the influence of climate change, and society needs to become better at making risk-informed decisions. The session will start with an exposé by Cameron Hepburn, Professor of Environmental Economics at the University of Oxford and Director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, who will set out the legal and financial risk in getting to net-zero by 2030.

John Quinlan, CEO of Aviva Ireland, will follow, laying out the views on risk from the insurance industry, paving the way for a participatory plenary game, where your financial decisions will have physical climate, legal and reputational risks.

The climate risk game is specially designed for EIT Climate-KIC by the Red Cross & Red Crescent Climate Centre.

Speakers:

• Cameron Hepburn, Professor of Environmental Economics, University of Oxford and Director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment
• John Quinlan, CEO, Aviva Ireland

The Finance Incubator is a collaboration between EIT Climate-KIC, Convergence and ICFA, that aims to enable early stage ideas on financial vehicles to overcome specific barriers. In this first pilot, live at the Climate Innovation Summit, seven start-ups will pitch for seed funding. The pilot marks a formal cooperation between EIT Climate KIC and other finance accelerators.

The Start-ups:

• Gudd Green Fund
• Carbonsink
• Windof Asset Management
• Catalyst Off-grid Advisors with Venture Builders
• NoCO2
• SVX México and Regenerative Investments Consortium
• Endless Energy

The Judges:

• Sachin Vankalas Director of Operations & Sustainability, Luxemburg Finance Labelling Agency (LuxFLAG)
• Trang Tran, Associate, Convergence
• Laura Burke, Director General, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Ireland

Mobilizing the world’s financial centres is essential for progress on climate change and sustainable development – and a growing number of financial centres are taking strategic action to seize this opportunity. Financial centres have a powerful clustering effect across different market segments and sectors, delivering benefits for financial institutions, clients, and the wider economy. As sustainable finance moves to the mainstream, this dynamic is now being mobilised for sustainable development and climate action.

The G7 backed UN Environment Financial Centres for Sustainability (FC4S) aims to accelerate this shift among financial centres, with the long-term vision of the FC4S Network for rapid global growth of green and sustainable finance across the world’s financial centres, supported by strengthened international connectivity, and a framework for common approaches.

The FC4S network is working to mobilise all 30 located financial centres in support of the European Commission’s Action Plan for Financing Sustainable Growth. This work will be carried out through the FC4S European network, formally launched by Paschal Donohoe, Irish minister for finance at this session of the annual Climate Innovation Summit.

Speakers:

• Paschal Donohoe, Minister for Finance, Ireland
• Nick Robins, co-chair of the UNEP Finance Initiative’s climate working group

Three years ago, the nations of the world chose a more sustainable path for our planet and our economy, with the adoption of the Paris Agreement on climate change and the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Delivering on these goals will require trillions more euros be unlocked and put into low-emission and resilient investment and over longer timeframes, to assist the transformational sustainable investment projects seeking finance. This panel will bring together a range of experts from the private sector to discuss how this private investment can be unlocked, what their firms are doing in this area and how best to put future financial investments to work to meet the challenges of climate change.

Panelists:

• Nick Robins, Co- Director, UN International Network of Financial Centres for Sustainability
• Teresa O'Flynn, Global Head of BlackRock Real Assets Sustainable Investing
• Pierre Ducret, Board member Finance for Tomorrow, Co-Chairman UN FC4S and Chairman I4CE
• Antoni Ballabriga, Chairman, European Banking Federation Working Group on Sustainable Finance
• Stephane Boujnah, CEO and Chairman of Euronext
• Emil Stigsgaard Fuglsang, Co-founder & COO, Matter
• Pierre Rousseau, Strategic advisor for Sustainable Business, BNP Paribas

This session seeks to explore how can we use standardisation to help mobilise private capital for sustainable infrastructure financing, and address why this is critical to ensure a functioning market place. It will allow participants to contribute to how we can best develop a set aligned of indicators that capture the sustainability of all key standards thereby, simplifying the decision process for investors. Moreover, it will seek to explore what implications this might have for developing future financing initiatives and mechanisms around large scale infrastructure projects.

This session will both aim to harmonise the standard landscape in the market, hence facilitating the investments in certified sustainable and resilient infrastructure projects and explore financing mechanisms for large scale infrastructure. Furthermore, the selection of those most relevant sustainability indicators will simplify the investment decision process in sustainable infrastructure. Both outcomes will contribute to unlocking the much-needed private capital to finance sustainable and resilient infrastructure projects.

• Robin Haack, Senior Manager, Alpha FMC
• Katharina Schneider-Roos, CEO, GIB Foundation
• Sébastien Solielle, is Global Head of Energy Transition and Environment, BNP Paribas
• Sachin Vankalas, Director of Sustainability, LuxFlag

The exchange session presents the financial aspects of climate adaptation at different scale levels and sectors, followed by an in-depth exploration of constraints and opportunities in adaptation finance, innovative financial products and leverages, and actions needed to further develop financially sustainable adaptation projects.

In this interactive session, a case study of a climate adaptation from Australia will be used to showcase the perspective of key actors in the system, resulting in a statement of outcomes for financing the adaptation project. Participants would then be guided through an ideation process where they map the responsibilities and possible financial flows between key actors to identify possible new ways of capturing value.

Speakers:

• Christopher Lee, CEO, Climate-KIC Australia
• Peter Head, Founder and Chair, Resilience Brokers
• Monica Altamirano, Senior Financial Expert, Deltares
• Svante Persson Senior Operations Specialist, Inter-American Development Bank
• Saliha Dobardzic Senior Climate Change Specialist, Adaptation Fund

The October 2018 Special Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) sounds an alarm. To avoid dangerous interference in the global climate system, the report concludes, we must keep global warming due to the human-induced greenhouse effect to 1.5o C, the more stringent Paris target. To stay within this constraint and avoid catastrophic climate change, we must increase investment in sustainable infrastructure. And we must do so rapidly. The speed and scale of investment must match the speed and scale in the growth of risk. We must invest to build resilience in the communities exposed to the impacts of climate change.

Among European and African located financial centres, this panel discussion will discuss how best financial centres can support each other in the sharing of knowledge, lessons learnt and mobilising capital market participants in support of the sustainable finance agenda.

• Lamia Merzouki, Deputy CEO Casablanca Finance Authority
• Sabine Dobeli, CEO Swiss Sustainable Finance
• Patricia C. Wycoco, Development Finance, World Bank

This dynamic session will explore the interactions between start-ups and corporates, and the efforts of those carving out a space for risk-taking and rapid experimentation. Portfolio and ecosystems approaches are increasingly seeing groups of focused start-ups reinvigorate corporate models and help break through inertia.

Globally, as we are seeing an increase in the number of start-ups and in the investments they successfully obtain. According to Startup Hubs Europe, there are currently 829.000 start-ups companies across the main European start-ups hubs, with a total revenue of 426bn EUR, a total funding of 36 bn EUR, and employing together 4.45 million people. The start-up revolution shows no sign of ending. What are start-ups doing right, why are they so attractive for industries and investors, and how can we leverage the impact of, and interest in start-ups for wider-scale systemic innovation transformation?

This session will explore the exceedingly popularity of corporate entrepreneurship set-ups, whereby industries and entrepreneurs collaborate and co-develop, and new innovative models in which this is happing. The session will discuss what is level-playing field in which both start-up and corporates succeed and what is the base line for these collaborations leading to actual climate impact and large-scale innovation.

Speakers

• Anna Laycock, Executive Director, Finance Innovation Lab
• Peter Kragh Halling, Project Manager, E.ON Accelerator
• Raphael Fellmer Co-founder and CEO, SirPLUS
• Kilian Kaminski, Founder, Refurbed
• John Atcheson, Founder and CEO, Stuffstr

Delivering the Paris commitments needs more investment in innovative solutions. These often involve challenging investment propositions with diverse stakeholders and longer-term investment perspectives. Building-stock retrofit, circular business models or implementing micro-grids are current examples and the future may be more complex.

Meanwhile, a common pattern exists in Europe. Cities and regions often see the instruments and programmes at EU, national and local level, but can’t apply them. Instrument ‘owners’ at the Commission, in capitals or within institutional investors are frustrated by low levels of uptake. While private finance prefers short-term or conservative investment. And philanthropic funding goes it alone. If this is holding back investment in current activities, future investment will be even more of a challenge. How can we break this cycle?

This session aims to explore the perspectives of these parties to encourage collaboration on ‘blended solutions’ to developing innovative innovation-focused funding for activities at city and region level.

• Peter Berkowitz, Head of Unit for Smart and Sustainable Growth, DG REGIO
• Terry McCallion, Director Energy Efficiency, EBRD
• Jean Naslin, Executive Director, Head of Public Affairs, CaixaBank
• Amanda Eichel, Executive Director for the Global Secretariat, Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy
• Kate Levick, Director - Sustainable Finance, E3G
• Prof. Andreas Papandreou, Department of Economics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

This pitch-style session will showcase three examples of climate-related risk tools and methods supported by Climate-KIC for use by the financial industry.

A consortium led by Aarhus University including Deltares, Tecnalia and CDP will showcase how large multinational corporations are discussing and assessing climate risks.

Carbon Delta will present their Value-at-Risk metric that is currently being used by asset managers to understand climate scenarios and the absolute value of investment risks and opportunities. Climate VaR was launched in 2018; the public online tool will be launched in early 2019.

South Pole will showcase its scenario-based portfolio climate risk assessment tool, allowing full integration of climate risks into long-term asset allocation and benchmarking across investment portfolios.

The discussion will summarise and workshop the key topics to be addressed in order to make climate risk assessment more relevant for decision making, risk management, and disclosure.

Panelists:

• Oliver Marchand, CEO Carbon Delta
• Nico Kröner, Product Development Manager, South Pole Group
• Hans Sanderson, Senior Scientist, Aarhus University
• Moderator: Peter Cripps, Environmental Finance

• Speaker: Sean Cleary, Chairman, Strategic Concepts
• Followed by entertainment with Evolution, Today FM DJ Claire Beck and Aisling Ennis on electric harp.