Towards the Climate Transition: Green Finance and Investment

Climate change and its impact on the economy presents a key challenge of our time. To address the challenges that lie ahead, it is crucial that the green transition becomes an integral part of economic policies, the financial sector, businesses and individuals. Financial institutions can contribute to this process by implementing socially responsible and sustainable investment frameworks, . At the same time, firms have a vital role to play in limiting global warming by their timely and adequate investments. In this respect, the effectiveness of the green transition will depend on a concerted efforts by economic policies, the regulatory environment, support from the banking and financial sector and the synergies between public and private investment.

Banka Slovenije and the European Investment Bank have together organised a half-day conference, “Towards the Climate Transition: Green Finance and Investment”. The conference was held on 29 September at the Banka Slovenije premises. The conference focused on how to finance a sustainable transition to a carbon-neutral economy and what roles financial institutions and businesses can have in this process.

The event was opened by Primož Dolenc, deputy governor of Banka Slovenije, and Teresa Czerwinska, vice-president of the EIB.

The keynote speakers were Debora Revoltella, chief economist at the EIB, who presented the EIB’s latest research on investment for Slovenia with a focus on climate change, and Katja Koren, Director of Banking Operations at Banka Slovenije, who presented how Banka Slovenije incorporated sustainability-linked considerations in the investment framework of its own financial assets.

The main part of the event was a roundtable discussion chaired by Tina Žumer, vice-governor of Banka Slovenije, with the participation of:

• Patrick Amis, directorate general Specialised Institutions and LSIs at the ECB.
• Daniel C. L. Hardy, senior research associate at the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies,
• Elina Kamenitzer, Director of the Operations Support Department, EIB
• Alenka Recelj Mercina, head of sustainability at NLB d.d,
• Sandra Švaljek, deputy Governor at Croatian National Bank
• Peter Wostner, researcher at the Institute for Macroeconomic Analysis and Development.

Opening speech by Deputy Governor Primož Dolenc
Presentation by Debora Revoltella, Chief Economist at European Investment Bank
Presentation by Katja Koren, Director of Banking Operations at Banka Slovenije
The recording of the discussion is available here (YouTube).