HONG KONG SAR - Media OutReach - 19 August 2021 - The world has agreed to Green/Sustainable Finance as one of the major tools for climate impact mitigation and adaptation, and NOW is the time for the decade of action to take effect. A lot is happening in the Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) space, and has been for some time. To label a company or an investment fund "green" or "sustainable" is a must nowadays if you want to attract investors.

At this webinar on 1 September 2021 (Wed) 10 am – 11:30 am (GMT+8), organized by TÜV Rheinland Hong Kong, speaking respectively on policy drivers for Green/Sustainable Finance, decision-useful reporting standards & metrics, and converting data/metrics to actionable ratings will be Rakesh Vazirani, Head of Sustainability Services, TÜV Rheinland together with Jennifer Chan, Chairman and Non-Executive Director, DT Capital, Chad Spitler, Founder & CEO, Third Economy, and Katie Schmitz-Eulitt, Director of Investor Relationships – SASB, Value Reporting Foundation.

Government and policymaker interest in sustainable finance and investment has grown dramatically since the start of the century. Of the policies identified by the PRI, 95% have been developed since the year 2000. The pace continues to increase – the PRI identified 124 new or revised policy instruments in 2020, the highest number so far and 32 more than the previous year. As sustainable finance and investment policies are developed, driving investments towards sustainable, inclusive, and zero-carbon economies will require aligning regulatory frameworks globally.

Businesses and investors today face a particular challenge when it comes to sustainability and corporate responsibility. We know that awareness and performance in sustainability writ large correlates to better financial performance, and that higher levels of mandatory reporting of sustainability metrics in various forms are required across the globe in order to provide comparable metrics within and across sectors. Comparable metrics are critical to the policy decisions that need to be made to address global sustainability challenges. To date, 'best metrics' selection has been driven in large part through consensus building across stakeholder groups.

Key ESG data can play a significant role in understanding the risks and opportunities likely to influence that potential. Investors are eager to see financially material sustainability data become more readily available and more standardized, and they laud participating companies for contributing to that vision. Investors also prefer that ESG performance be broken out at the function or business unit level to allow for apples-to-apples comparisons.

To learn more about the latest ESG and technical standard developments, please click here to register for the webinar:

Agenda

A. Family Offices, Independent Directors - Gearing Up to Excel at ESG

B. Sustainable Finance on Steroids

C. Level Playing Field and Ready to Score

D. Same-Same But Different - Converting Data/Metrics to Actionable Ratings

E. Achieve with Technical Standards

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