In cooperation with the British Embassy Prague, the ISFC is organising a special event on what the COP26 conference and greater climate ambition will mean for the future of finance, and what impact sustainability principles may have for the financial sector. The event will explore the myriad of opportunities for improved profitability and resilience that arise from alignment with Paris Agreement goals. A range of industry experts will explain the reasoning behind their decision to commit to greater climate action, and look at why 2021 will be an important year for both the financial sector and for the global climate discussion. The event will also explore the actions institutions and organisations undertake to ensure alignment with climate goals.

The event is aimed at the financial and business sectors in the Central European region (with the main focus on Czechia, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia). The aim is to reach people whose work is likely to be affected by decisions made at the COP26 climate conference. The event will have a 45min public part (streamed online and available to the general public), and a 45min closed door session (held under Chatham House rules for select invited guests).

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Agenda:

• 9:00 CET: Public session, streamed online (Opening remarks and statements from speakers)
• 9:45 CET: Closed-door, invite only interactive session

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Speakers:

• Ben Caldecott, Director of the Oxford Sustainable Finance Programme, COP26 Strategy Advisor for Finance and Chair of the Finance SectorExpert Group for Race to Zero & Race to Resilience
• Sir Roger Gifford, Chairman of the Green Finance Institute and Senior Banker at SEB
• Jitka Haubová, Member of the Board of Directors, Executive Director, and the Chief Operations Officer (COO) at Komerční banka (KB)
• Sara Lovisolo, Group Sustainability Manager, Borsa Italiana and Member, EFRAG PTF on Non-financial Reporting

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Questions:

• What changes to expect in 2021 and 2022 due to increased climate ambition?
• What particular changes might we see as a result of the COP26 in Glasgow?
• What is Race to Zero and Race to Resilience? And why are they important for financial institutions?
• What are the benefits of climate action or climate targets for businesses or financial institutions?
• Where to look for information or help when trying to for a better understanding of sustainability and climate action?

Speaker bios

Sir Roger Gifford is a Senior Banker at SEB in London. Roger is also Vice Chair and past Chair of the Association of Foreign Banks (AFB) in London and Chair of the Advisory Board of the International Business and Diplomatic Exchange (IBDE). He read Chemistry at Oxford University and began his career in the financial sector at S.G. Warburg & Co, joining SEB in 1982. Prior to his appointment as UK Country Head (2000 – 2016) Roger headed the bank's operations in Japan for six years. He has worked in and around the primary debt and equity capital markets most of his career.

He was Chair of the London Green Finance Initiative launched in 2016 to further the contribution of the financial sector to the G20 climate agenda and chaired the UK Government’s Green Finance Taskforce in 2018. Roger is also Chair of the Green Finance Institute, launched in 2019, which has the economics, risk and commercial opportunity of meeting the challenge of climate change as its main focus.

Prof Ben Caldecott is the founding Director of the Oxford Sustainable Finance Programme at the University of Oxford Smith School of Enterprise & the Environment. He is also the inaugural holder of the Lombard Odier Associate Professorship, and a Supernumerary Fellow at Oriel College, Oxford, and a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University. Ben is the COP26 Strategy Advisor for Finance based out of the UK Cabinet Office. Ben currently serves on the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission's Climate-Related Market Risk Subcommittee and the UK Department for International Trade's Export Guarantees Advisory Council.

Ben founded and co-chairs the Global Research Alliance for Sustainable Finance and Investment (GRASFI), an alliance of global research universities promoting rigorous and impactful academic research on sustainable finance. He established and leads the Sustainable Finance Theme at The Alan Turing Institute and initiated the Spatial Finance Initiative, which aims to mainstream geospatial capabilities enabled by space technology and data science into financial decision-making globally. He co-founded the Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative (CCLI), which is examining the legal basis for directors and trustees to consider, manage, and report on climate change-related risk, and the circumstances in which they may be liable for failing to do so. He also established and led as chair Bright Blue's research programme on energy and the environment.

Jitka Haubová is a Member of the Board of Directors, Executive Director, and the Chief Operations Officer (COO) at Komerční banka (KB). Jitka joined KB in 2006 in the Trade Finance Department. Since 2012, she has held various managerial roles in Corporate and Municipal Banking, which she has managed for the last four years. Prior to joining KB, she worked for a government agency focused on supporting trade in the Czech Republic, called CzechTrade, where she also held the position of CEO.

She graduated from the University of Economics in Prague, majoring in finance and accounting, graduated in Financial Management from Galilee College in Israel, obtained a Certificate of Structural Funds Specialist from the European Commission and is a certified international auditor for quality processes.

Sara Lovisolo is responsible for sustainability management and strategy at Borsa Italiana, part of London Stock Exchange Group. She is also co-chair of the working group tasked with setting up the government-backed Italian Sustainable Financial Centre, following her involvement in 2016 in the Italian National Dialogue on Sustainable Finance as co-chair of the Capital Markets working group.

She has been an active member of the Consultative Group of the UN-backed Sustainable Stock Exchanges initiative since 2014, and in 2018 joined the Steering Committee of FC4S, the UNEP-supported network of Financial Centers for Sustainability. In June 2018 she was appointed to the EU Technical Expert Group on Sustainable Finance. She has a Masters in Economics from Bocconi University and has co-authored a number of publications on the impact of taxation on the cost of capital. She also has a post-graduate certificate in Applied Anthropology from the University of Milan-Bicocca.