upcoming event

Berne Union / ICC Joint Sustainability Workshop 2025

Feb 27 - Feb 28, 2025
London, United Kingdom
Register to attend

Berne Union / ICC Joint Sustainability Workshop 2025

This two day in person multi-stakeholder meeting will take place at Norton Rose office in London,
on Thursday and Friday, 27 - 28 February 2025

The meeting will focus on practical implementation of sustainability in export credit and investment insurance industry.
The objective is to establish a dialogue which can connect the thread of sustainability implementation across the industry,
from policy and strategy through technical analysis to delivery in concrete transactions.

Day 1: High-level strategic sessions focused on exploring the overarching framework for sustainability in export credit and investment insurance industry

Day 2: Workshop day focused on practical implementation, connecting together technical sustainability practitioners with originators and underwriters

Participants: Banks, ECAs, and private underwriters from both the ESG / sustainability teams and the origination / underwriting teams
Participants also to be invited from law firms, contractors, consultants

Join us to share with your colleagues how to practically implement sustainability in export credit and investment insurance industry

Steering Committee Members: ACRE Impact Capital, DZ Bank, Norton Rose Fulbright, EKN, EIFO, ICIEC, LMA and the BU Secretariat representatives.

Please contact Eve Hall and Didem Bayseferogullari at the Berne Union Secretariat for any queries.

Agenda

Agenda Download meeting agenda

 Thursday 27th February

 08:30 - 09:00

Registration and Morning Coffee 

 09:00 - 09:15

Welcome by Co-Chair

Karin Wessman

Head of Sustainability and Country Risk

EKN

 09:15 - 10:00

Sustainability in Numbers: Data Insights and Market Mapping

A session summarising the survey of banks and ECAs on sustainability standards, frameworks, initiatives, and progress in implementation of sustainability strategies

Chris Mitman

Managing Partner

ACRE IMPACT CAPITAL

Paul Heaney

Secretary General

BERNE UNION

Dan Sheriff

CEO

TXF / EXILE GROUP

 10:00 - 10:45

Initiatives Round Table

Overview of sustainability frameworks and initiatives featuring E3F, NZECA, LMA, OECD and Common Approaches, ICC SWG

Kara Stöcker

Senior Vice President Sustainability

DZ BANK

Gemma Lawrence-Pardew

Head of Sustainability

The Loan Market Association (LMA)

Julio Fernández-Giro Ayuga

Head of E&S and Climate Risks

CESCE

Silvia Gavornikova

Head of Export Credits and Competition Division

OECD

Moderated by

Toke Philipsen Prahm

Director, Export Credit Regulation and Climate Policy

EIFO

 10:45 - 11:15

Break

 11:15 - 12:15

How Impactful can Export Finance become?

  • Convergence of development, impact and export finance sources - challenges and opportunities post modernisation
  • Impact Frameworks for Green and Social infrastructure financing - best practice and importance of getting it right for upside and to avoid downside eg, green / social washing
  • What has been the impact of the modernisation on borrower affordability for green / social projects? What works and doesn't and why?
  • Reporting on impact - who leads and pays and what needs reporting and why?

Clement Yapo

Senior ESG Officer

ATIDI

Paul Mudde

Strategic Business Consultant

Sustainable Finance & Insurance

Philip Lewis 

Global Co-Head of Export Finance

HSBC

Chris Mitman

Managing Partner

ACRE IMPACT CAPITAL

Moderated by

David Milligan

Partner

NORTON ROSE FULBRIGHT

 12:15 - 13:00

Challenges of Origination

  • How do we connect our ambitions to proactively provide more sustainable finance with the reality of a demand-driven industry?
  • How to find feasible transactions? How to fill gaps, find patterns and opportunities in new product structures, etc.
  • What are we doing to improve sustainable deal flow? How does the finance component of export able to shift the underlying export part?

Carsten Böhler

Head of Project Finance & Infrastructure

SERV

Ralph Lerch

Head Export Finance

DZ BANK

Karen Hung

Director, ESG Policy & Research

EDC

Yasser Ibrahim

Sector Manager for E&S and Climate

MIGA

Moderated by

Eve Hall

Director

BERNE UNION

 13:00 - 14:00

Lunch 

 14:00 - 15:00

Monitoring, Labelling, Reporting

What are the principles of labelling and how do individual banks and ECA set their priorities and approaches

Ángela Guirado González

Sustainability, Global Transaction Banking

SANTANDER

Emmanuelle Dot

Climate Change & Sustainability Manager

UKEF

Johanna Wohlgemuth

Manager ESG & Sustainability

PwC

Moderated by

Karin Wessman

Head of Sustainability and Country Risk

EKN

 15:00 - 16:00

Exporter / Developer Challenges

Deep dive into geographical and industry challenges as shared by the clients

Markus Sluga

Head of International Structured Finance

VAMED ENGINEERING

Ram Shalita 

CEO, Partner

BLUEBIRD FINANCE AND PROJECTS

Madiha Aslam

Director, Structured Finance

INNOVO

TBC

TBC

TBC

Moderated by

Yoshi Ichikawa

Managing Director, Head of Europe, Development & Agency Finance

Standard chartered bank

 16:00 - 16:15

Break

 16:15 - 17:15

Introduction to Workshop: Real-World Transaction Lab

Moderated by

Didem Bayseferogullari 

Senior Manager

BERNE UNION

 17:15 - 19:00

Drinks Reception (on the 9th floor)


 Friday 28th February

 08:30 - 09:30

Networking and Morning Coffee

 09:30 - 09:40

Co-Chair's Recap and Welcome

Faruq Muhammad

Global Head of Development & Agency Finance

Standard chartered bank

 09:40 - 11:15

Workshop: Real-World Transaction Lab Cont.

Moderated by case study leaders

TBC

TBC

TBC

 11:15 - 11:30

Break

 11:30 - 12:30

Workshop: Reflections 

 12:30 - 13:15

Where do we need to go as an industry?

Karin Wessman

Head of Sustainability and Country Risk

EKN

Faruq Muhammad

Global Head of Development & Agency Finance

Standard chartered bank

Yuichiro Akita

BU President, and General Manager, International and Strategic Policy

nexi

Moderated by

Andreas Klasen

Professor of International Business, Brunel University of London

Honorary Research Associate, University of Oxford

 13:15 - 13:30

Closing Remarks

 13:30 - 14:30

Lunch