Sustainable Finance & Biodiversity Conference – Key Takeaways

The Sustainable Finance & Biodiversity Conference in Berlin by the working group on Biodiversity of the Sustainable Finance-Beirat (SFB) and hosted by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection was a great success, with so many great speakers and active participation from the audience and online!

Ingmar Juergens, Climate & Company’s Co-Founder and CEO, and Permanent Observer to the SFB, delivered a presentation titled ” Regulation: How can regulators help guide us towards a nature-positive economy?”. He then moderated a panel discussion with of Elisa Famery from DG Trésor, France; Sven Gentner from DG FISMA, European Commission; and Dr.Esther Wandel from the German Ministry of Finance, to get their perspectives on this question.

Here are our key take-aways from the event:

➡ At the political level: Germany really needs to step up its game as it’s certainly not in a leadership position at the moment. Several other countries have already surpassed Germany in their level of ambition with creating the right frameworks and regulation. It is encouraging to see that the G20 has set up a nature and finance working group and opening a new working stream on transition finance.

➡ In general: attendees from diverse backgrounds (banking, business, policymakers) agree that the global economy has a clear link with the state of biodiversity, as so much is dependent on having a healthy ecosystem.

➡ On regulations and standards: there is a feeling that there should be more clarity, guidance and harmonisation across different standards and regulation to make it easier for financial institutions and businesses to comply – but the will is there!