2023 is racing by and these issues remain central to the Sustainable Finance Agenda:
A → Rebound: Volumes across all products to rebound
B → Nature: Biodiversity and nature is coming for Use of Proceeds, Linked Instruments and much deeper corporate disclosures
C → Double Materiality: ISSB (International Sustainability Standards Board) which remains on track to release harmonized sustainability disclosure standards will include aspects of double materiality and Scope 3
D → Scope 3: Just like the ISSB above, the SEC is also talking about much more detailed scope 3 reporting reequipments (time to get this in scope or you will be out of scope!)
E → Social: More S needed and will see greater interlinks and relationships between E and S as part of ESG (Environment, Social, Governance)
F → Carbon Markets: This will start to get integrated more into Sustainable Finance. We have already seen a recent bond whereby the return is linked to verified carbon units from a project
G → Greenwashing: More specific guidance is coming, best practices on this is now expected with criticism at a more detailed and thoughtful level also.
H → Adaption: Its time for the little brother and sister of mitigation to shine…. Adapt to the adaptation
I → Second Party Opinions Regulated: It’s not if, it’s when – the EU GBS (Green bond Standard) will be the first regulation/jurisdiction to do this and then other will follow
J → Taxonomies: Expected to continue to grow– Interoperability will be the key word and discussion point (countries need different taxonomies as they have different stages of decarbonization and socio eco development. Architecture should be similar though)
K → Financial Products: We will see more products be labelled as green; such as Trade Instruments, Guarantees and lots of others
L → Transition: Time to get a proper plan together and also include just transition (this is the year for transition labels)
More issues and concepts will continue to emerge. The above are some recurring issues and themes that keep coming up.
Just like a gain of sand, we can be off to a net zero oriented Never Never land!
