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Is the EU long-term sustainability strategy «bankable»?

Day 2 Afternoon

Thursday 04 April

Room :

Grand Ballroom - Roundtable

Speakers

Chair
Daniel Calleja Crespo
Director General for Environment, European Commission
Public Authorities
Jean-David Malo
Director, Open Innovation and Open Science, DG RTD, European Commission
Andrew McDowell
Vice-President, EIB
Artur Runge-Metzger
Director, Climate Strategy, Governance and Emissions from Non-trading Sectors, DG CLIMA, European Commission
Gerassimos Thomas
Deputy Director General, DG ENERGY, European Commission
Industry Representatives
Natalie Westerbarkey
Head of EU Public Policy, Fidelity International
Laurent Zylberberg
Senior Executive Vice President, Public Affairs and International Relations, Caisse des Dépôts & President, ELTI
Other stakeholder & expert
Edmond Alphandéry
Chairman, Euro 50 Group

Objectives of the session

Notably in the context of the 2015 Paris Agreement, the EU is setting ambitious environmental sustainability policy objectives. In addition to related EU sustainability packages, the EU Commission also proposed in May 2018 a regulation on a framework to facilitate sustainable investment. In recent years, the EU has also innovated in order to further optimise the use of public funds by combining them with large private sector financial resources (Juncker Plan, InvestEU).

Since achieving these ambitious transition programmes requires both constant technological innovation and an unprecedented level of financial investment, this session is dedicated to outlining whether current EU sustainability strategies and investment practices provide sufficient legibility, certainty and agility so as to trigger the relevant number of projects and accelerate the involvement of the private financial sector.

Points of discussion

Are the main features of EU sustainability policies in the areas of circular economy, energy transition, climate… adequate to trigger relevant levels of investment in the EU in the appropriate domains? What are the positives and negatives of the observed fragmentation of sustainability policies?

Is there a lack of investment in the EU sustainability strategy? What are the main impediments to achieve a sufficient level of sustainable investments in the EU?

What should be the priorities for the next EU parliament and Commission to allow sustainable investment to change gears in the EU?