Trade Finance TV: How is sustainable export finance stepping up?
TXF Editor, Jonathan Bell joined Deutsche Bank to discuss how export credit agencies can step-up and improve the volume of current export finance deals being classed as sustainable, and what should the OECD Arrangement do to support Net Zero transition?
Since the publication of the ICC’s Sustainability in Export Finance report in September 2021, we have had the COP26 summit, which placed a particular focus on how transition to Net Zero will be financed. How are export credit agencies stepping up? How will we move beyond a mere 20% of current export finance deal flow being sustainable? And what should the OECD Arrangement do to support Net Zero transition?
As Jonathan Bell puts it, “There are wholesale changes taking place in the export finance sector and to a large extent this has been driven by the sharp move away from hydrocarbon financing to the financing of projects in the renewable energy sector.”
“We are highly optimistic that we will achieve very clear measurable objectives during 2022 and I think one of those will be to get a common definition of what is sustainable, what’s green and what’s social in the market,” reflects Investec Bank’s Chris Mitman
And Ed Harkins of GKB Ventures asks, “Why can’t countries be free to go beyond the OECD for projects that are sustainable and green?” having noted that this already happens for defence projects.
To hear more from this lively expert panel, watch Trade Finance TV below
Participants
Chris Mitman, Head of Export and Agency Finance at Investec Bank
Ed Harkins, Managing Director, GKB Ventures
Co-presenters
Jonathan Bell, Editor in Chief, TXF News
Clarissa Dann, Editorial Director, Deutsche Bank AG
