• Nicholas Gandolfo, Director, Corporate Solutions

The recurring theme in this episode’s round up of market developments is innovation! Nick also offers a list of recommended reading for the month (be prepared, it’s a long one) and concludes the tale of his encounter with an elephant in Bangladesh first mentioned in October’s episode.

The thread of innovation continues throughout sustainable finance – from green cryptocurrency to ESG derivatives, and relinked sustainability instruments (sustainability-linked bonds tied to sustainability-linked loans). Ultimately, it’s good to see the market continue to develop, but caution and scrutiny are needed to ensure that labeling and the increasing complexity of financial instruments don’t lead to greenwashing.

On the heels of Allbirds’ initial public offering (IPO), for which Sustainalytics provided a corporate ESG assessment of the company, there are continuing discussions about the greening of IPOs. As the number of companies going public continues to rise, they are each looking for ways to signal to investors that they are a safe bet when it comes to managing material ESG risk and overall company management. Having their ESG or sustainability performance assessed by a third-party prior to their IPO is one way to do that. Watch this space as we see how this trend develops for new IPOs in 2022.

Nick runs down a list of reports and research focused on reducing emissions and transition finance.

• IEA – Tracking Report: Methane Emissions from Oil and Gas

01:28

Market overview

02:00

Greening of IPOs

02:40

Google adds carbon data to flight info

03:00

Green cryptocurrency

03:32

EF conference - ESG Risk Ratings

04:08

ESG derivatives

04:46

Taxonomy report from Natixis

05:11

Nuclear power in sustainable finance

05:46

COP 26 highlights

06:19

New in sustainability-linked finance: relinked SLB

07:04

Biodiversity COP15 highlights

07:31

Green industry unicorns

08:03

Report recommendations: McKinsey & IEA methane reports

08:40

CBI interactive data tool

09:36

Green bonds overview

15:10

Social bonds and loans overview

21:21

Audience questions

28:21

SLL overview

30:53

Labeled products overview

32:16

Transition finance overview

33:30

Regulatory and country update

• Natixis – The New Geography of Taxonomies

• Kvika Bank Green Financing Framework Second-Party Opinion

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