On 14 May, the Stockholm Sustainable Finance Centre organised the 2nd annual conference of the Northern European Partnership for Sustainable Finance (NEPSF) in collaboration with WWF and Mistra Center for Sustainable Finance (MISUM).

This conference explored the opportunities investors have to steer their portfolios towards sustainability and discuss how obstacles can be overcome. How can science-based targets help, and what are investors’ experiences with using methods for aligning their portfolios with the Paris climate targets? How can investors be effective active owners? How can investments be geared towards more long-term sustainable value creation?

Read here what NordSip wrote about the conference.

The role of investors in mitigating climate change

Victor Galaz, Deputy Director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre, delivered the keynote “Finance and the Earth System.” Dr Galaz discussed work showing how a handful of international investors are linked to economic activities that influence the stability of some of the world’s largest forests, and hence the global climate.

The first morning session examined the extent to which investors are on track to meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement. In particular, this session looked at the role of science-based targets. Eric Usher, Head of the UN Environment Programme’s Finance Initiative (UNEP-FI), addressed panellists on the “Principles of Responsible Banking.”

Northern Europe: Leadership in sustainable finance

One year after the adoption of the EU Action Plan on Sustainable Finance, Marie Baumgarts of SEB, member of the European Commission’s Technical Expert Group on Sustainable Finance (TEG), and Sandrine Dixson-Declève-Declève of E3G, also a TEG member, were among those discussing the EU Action plan from a Northern European perspective.

A fruitful – and sometimes heated – exchange between practitioners in the finance sector, representatives from international organisations, and researchers on topical questions in sustainable finance.