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Sustainable Finance: From Niche to New Normal

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There is an increasing sense of urgency and expectation about putting the global economy on a path toward sustainable development. The urgency stems from a massive projected investment gap of EUR 180 billion each year to meet the Paris Climate Agreement goals.

In its 2018 Action Plan on Sustainable Finance, the EU Commission calculated an annual gap of EUR 180 billion only within the EU; the EU Green Deal now mentions a number north of EUR 200 billion (i.e., action through investments, innovation, operations and financial activity to minimize current and future effects of climate change). The sense of expectation relates to the fact that sustainable finance can provide a solution to help plug this massive funding gap.

In our 2019 Sustainable Finance Forum, we brought together leading institutional investors, lenders, corporations, policymakers and regulators to discuss how environmental and climate considerations are becoming imperative to investment decision.

This report, Sustainable Finance: From Niche to New Normal, features highlights from the Forum and delves into the role of private finance, regulation and measurement in moving sustainable finance from niche into mainstream.

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Pablo Berckholtz is the head of Estudio Echecopar's Banking & Finance practice in Lima and Chair of Latin America Capital Markets Steering Committee. He focuses on capital markets, corporate finance and derivatives, with experience in initial public offerings, high-yield debt and project bonds, representing both issuers and investment banks. He also has experience in derivatives matters, advises derivatives counterparties on regulatory and other Peruvian law matters.

Author

Michael is a finance partner in the London office and has deep experience of the international financial markets. Michael has extensive experience across the developed, emerging and frontier markets. His clients include private equity/credit funds, investment banks, multinational corporations, sovereign governments, state-owned entities, state agencies, supranational banks and sovereign wealth funds

Author

Adam Farlow heads the Firm's Capital Markets practice in Europe, Middle East and Africa. He is a New York and English qualified partner based in London. He has extensive experience in US securities laws and transaction management. He has been elected as a Life Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and serves on the Council of the American Bar Association Section of International Law.

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Marc Fèvre's practice spans project development, financing and secondary market transactions in the energy and infrastructure sectors. He has over 14 years of experience working in Asia, Europe, Africa and the Middle East and is recognised in his field by legal directories including Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners.

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Christopher Jones is a Principal in the European Competition Law Practice Group in the Brussels office. He joined Baker McKenzie in 2018.

Christopher's career has spanned more than 30 years at the European Commission, focusing on energy policy and competition policy.

During the last two decades, Christopher held a wide range of key energy posts including Director for Renewable Energy, Energy research and Energy Efficiency, Deputy Head of Cabinet for the Energy Commissioner and Deputy Director General for Energy.

He has been at the forefront of many major key energy and competition law decisions and innovations. He played a key role in the evolution of EU competition law towards the more economic and market based instrument it is today, and was instrumental in the successful implementation of EU merger control. He was the central EU official in opening up energy markets to competition as well as developing and implementing the core of the EU's energy policy as it is today; driving the '20-20-20' renewables and energy efficiency decarbonisation agendas, and setting the gas strategy and research policies.

Christopher is also an expert on competition policy, having spent 11 years in the field including responsibility for antitrust and mergers in the Cabinet of the Energy Commissioner, and as personal Policy Assistant to two Directors' General.

He is a leading academic in the competition and energy areas, as a part-time Professor at the European University Institute, editing and co-authoring a number of standard text books on Competition Law and Energy Markets, the Internal Energy Market, and EU Renewable Law and Policy, as well as books on merger control and the standard competition law reference work, the EU Competition Law Handbook.

Author

Caitlin McErlane is a partner in Baker McKenzie’s Financial Services & Regulatory Group in the London office. Caitlin's practice focuses on advising a range of global financial institutions on complex and high value regulatory matters. She advises banks, major corporates, payment institutions and asset managers on navigating UK and EU financial services regulation. She has particular experience in advising clients on regulatory implementation projects, day-to-day compliance issues, and regulatory issues arising in the context of large-scale transactions. She also expertise in the areas of banking and wholesale financial markets regulation, in particular in the FX and fixed income space, alongside experience advising market infrastructure providers, including major international exchanges, trading platforms, clearing systems and payment services providers, on a variety of compliance issues. Caitlin is also a member of the Baker's ESG and sustainability taskforce, and advises a range of clients on the drafting and implementation of ESG policies and the implications of becoming a signatory to the UNPRI and the Stewardship Code. Caitlin is an authority on regulatory reforms in the sustainability space and sits on a number of trade association working groups. She has recently been interviewed by Climate Action on her work and is a frequent speaker on the subject.

Author

David Palumbo is a partner and head of the Corporate and Securities Practice Group in Baker McKenzie's Toronto office. David is Chair of the Toronto Diversity and Inclusion Committee and a member of the North American Capital Markets Steering Committee. He serves as Vice-Chair of the Executive Board of the You Can Play Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring the inclusion of all in sports, and co-chair of the Toronto legal community's largest annual fundraiser, AIDSbeat, in support of the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research (CANFAR).

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Eva-Maria is a partner in our Austrian corporate / M&A group and a member of our global sustainability practice. She acts as global lead sustainability partner for our financial institutions industry group, heads Baker McKenzie's capital markets practice in Austria and is a member of our EMEA steering committee for capital markets. Eva-Maria is a dual-qualified lawyer, admitted to practice in Austria and New York. Prior to joining Baker McKenzie's Vienna office in 2008, Eva-Maria worked in the New York, Paris and Frankfurt offices of a well-known US law firm.

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Ivy Wong is the chair of Baker McKenzie's Capital Markets practice in Asia Pacific and serves on the Global Capital Markets Steering Committee. Based in Hong Kong, Ivy is qualified in Hong Kong, England and Wales and New York. She has led many unprecedented and high-profile securities offerings and cross-border transactions in Hong Kong, including many successful listings that are first of its kind on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and multiple landmark and innovative deals that won industry awards.

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