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Growth in Europe can be driven by Europe
Europe continues to be at the forefront of global sustainable finance. Climate Action, in partnership with UNEP FI are delighted to announce the 2021 Sustainable Investment Forum Europe will remain virtual whilst we navigate these challenging times, following the success of the September online event and extending our reach to a wider global audience.
Europe, in particular the EU can pave the way to a sustainable recovery beyond COVID-19. Europe’s regulatory and societal climates have encouraged and accelerated coherent sustainable investment growth strategies for the EU. They continue to represent a unique opportunity for governments to reshape a sustainable future world, and for private and institutional investors to access attractive responsible ESG investment propositions to support ESG and global sustainable finance.
Due to the volatile nature of the COVID-19 crisis, there is an urgent need to identify and model risks that companies did not consider prior to the pandemic, to encourage private and institutional investors to invest in more purposeful projects using enhanced de-risking mechanisms offered by increased EU-backed guarantees. With a mandate for embedding environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks in their investment strategies many are expecting the Biden administration will trigger growth in demand in ESG investing. It is anticipated that Biden will accelerate the transition to a low-carbon US economy –what are the e implications for Europe, and will this result in a decisive move towards a common approach to cross border carbon taxes in Europe and North America?
4-Part digital event series throughout April!
Featured Speakers

Geraldine Ang
Senior Policy Analyst, Green Finance & Investment
OECD
Geraldine Ang works as a senior policy analyst on green finance and investment at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which she joined in 2011. Under the OECD Centre on Green Finance and Investment, she has developed several projects to support the global green finance and investment agenda, including on: the role of central banks to address sustainability in the financial system; integrating climate factors in institutional investment; integrating biodiversity factors in business and investment decisions, and mobilising clean energy finance and investment. Geraldine has co-authored multiple OECD reports, such as the OECD report contributed to the G7 Environment in 2019 on Biodiversity: Finance and the Economic and Business Case for Action. She has organised several events on green finance and investment, such as the annual OECD Forum on Green Finance and Investment and the High-Level Breakfast on Institutional Investors and the Low-Carbon Transition. Prior to joining the OECD, she conducted research on climate mitigation for the Earth Institute. Previously, she worked for Lagardere Active and the French Senate. Geraldine holds a Master of Public Administration from Columbia University’s SIPA (2011), and a Master of Science in Management from HEC Paris (2006).

Olivier Rousseau
Executive Director
French Pension Reserve Fund (FRR)
Olivier Rousseau is executive director at Fonds de réserve pour les retraites (FRR), France’s pension reserve fund, where he also chairs the asset manager selection committee. Before joining FRR in 2011, he was attached to the French Embassy in Sweden as an economic advisor, a position he took up after two years on the board of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Rousseau began his career at the French Treasury, eventually joining BNP Paribas where he spent 11 years working in international banking and finance in Paris, Tokyo, London, Singapore, Hong Kong and Sydney offices. He graduated from the French National School of Administration (ENA) in 1986. He also holds a degree in political sciences and master degrees in law and economics from the University of Aix-en-Provence.

Olivier Guersent
Director General
European Commission
Olivier Guersent graduated with distinction from the “Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Bordeaux” in 1983. He joined the French Ministry of Economy and Finance in 1984, where he carried out many investigations for the French Competition Authority. He joined the European Commission in 1992, initially with the “Merger Task Force” in the Directorate-General for Competition. Since then, he has alternated between the private offices of a number of European Commissioners (Karel Van Miert, Michel Barnier and Neelie Kroes) and DG Competition (successively Deputy Head of Unit in charge of cartels, Head of Unit in charge of policy and coordination of cases, Head of Unit in charge of merger control, Acting Director “Transport, postal and other services” and, from 2009, Director responsible for the fight against cartels. From 2010 to 2014 he was the head of the private office of Michel Barnier, Commissioner for Internal Market and Services. Having held the position of Deputy Director-General since July 2014, Olivier Guersent has been Director-General of the Directorate-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union from 1 September 2015 to 31 December 2019. As of 1st January 2020 he is the Director General of the Directorate General for Competition. Married and a father of three children, Olivier Guersent is a member of the board of of the non-profit organisation Aremis that provides medical care in the home, primarily to cancer patients in the Brussels area. He is a regular lecturer to postgraduate university students.

Torben Möger Pedersen
CEO
PensionDanmark
Torben Möger Pedersen (b. 1955) is CEO of PensionDanmark – one of the largest pension funds in Denmark established in 1993.
PensionDanmark manages defined contribution pension plans, health care plans and life-long training programs based on collective agreements covering more than 740,000 blue-collar workers employed in 24,000 companies within the private and public sector. Total assets under management are EUR 32 billion and growing rapidly. A substantially part of the portfolio is direct investments in renewable energy infrastructure assets and sustainable real estate. PensionDanmark has received a great number of Awards for its groundbreaking investment strategy.
Torben Möger Pedersen holds a number of board and investment committee memberships including Copenhagen Business School (CBS), Arbejdernes Landsbank, Danish Insurance Association, Copenhagen Infrastructure Fund I, II and III, Danish Climate Investment Fund, Danish Agribusiness Fund, Danish SDG Investment Fund, SDG High Level Advisory Board, Danish Society for Education and Business (DSEB) and Board Leadership Society in Denmark.
Torben Möger Pedersen is a member of OECDs Working Group on Long-Term Investments, the Private Sector Advisory Group within the UN’s Green Climate Fund, the Global Agenda Council on Investments in World Economic Forum, the Steering Committee of World Economic Forum’s Retirement Investment System Reform Project, the Advisory Board in OECD’s Centre on Green Finance and Investment and the UN Global Compacts Financial Innovation Action Platform.
Torben Möger Pedersen holds a M.Sc. Economics from University of Copenhagen and is adjunct professor at CBS.

Magnus Billing
CEO
Alecta
Magnus Billing is the CEO of Alecta. Alecta provides collectively agreed occupational pensions, and is owned by approximately 2.4 million private customers and 34,000 corporate clients. Alecta’s assets under management amount to approximately USD 90 billion.
In 2016 Mr. Billing was appointed to be member of the European Commissions’ “high-level expert group” on sustainable finance. In January 2018, the group delivered their final recommendations for “a comprehensive EU strategy on sustainable finance as part of the Capital Markets Union”, which informed the Commissions’ Action plan on Sustainable Finance launched in 2018.
Prior to joining Alecta, Mr. Billing was the CEO of Nasdaq Nordics, and Head of Fixed Income Nordic and Baltic Markets. Within Nasdaq he previously held the position as Chief Legal Counsel and Senior Vice President of Nasdaq Group, Inc.
Mr. Billing has served as director of Federation of European Securities Exchanges, Swedish House of Finance and as an alternate director of the Swedish Corporate Governance Code Board of Directors. He holds a degree in Law from Stockholm University.

Chris Faint
Head of Department, Climate & Small Mutuals Division
Bank of England

Heike Reichelt
Head of investor relations and sustainable finance
The World Bank
Heike Reichelt is Head of Investor Relations and Sustainable Finance at the World Bank Treasury. The World Bank Treasury manages the funding programs for the World Bank (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, IBRD), the International Development Association (IDA), and the International Finance Facility for Immunisation (IFFIm). Her team is responsible for managing relationships with bond investors, rating agencies and the financial media, and developing new bond products. These include products to raise awareness for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and climate change mitigation and adaptation – like World Bank Green Bonds and World Bank Sustainable Development Bonds. Heike also manages outreach to the sustainable and impact investing community and works with other issuers and market participants to encourage the growth of sustainable capital markets focused on making a long-term positive social and environmental impact through integration of environmental, social and governance criteria (ESG) in investment decisions. She has 20+ years of experience in finance – including as an engagement manager for the World Bank Treasury’s Reserves Advisory Management Program for central banks and in the areas of export finance and capital markets, during her career at KfW, the largest German development bank. Heike was recognized for her role in building sustainable capital markets as the 2017 recipient of the prestigious Joan Bavaria Award.

Eva Halvarsson
CEO
AP2
Since 2006, Eva Halvarsson has acted as the CEO of the Second Swedish National Pension Fund — AP2. She heads up an organization with more than SEK 345 billion (approx. USD 43 billion) under management in virtually every asset class, and one that is active in all parts of the world; AP2 is one of northern Europe’s largest pension funds.
Ms. Halvarsson began her career as an accountant, progressing to the point that before joining AP2, she spent ten years working for the Swedish Government where she was responsible for the governance and management of the large and extensive portfolio of state owned companies.
Eva Halvarsson has had a distinguished and varied leadership career. She took part in the working group that put into effect the Swedish Corporate Governance Code in 2004. She also spent several years, serving on the Swedish Corporate Governance Board. Eva has been a board member of several large companies and has chaired the nomination committees of some of Sweden’s largest listed companies. She recently left after serving for ten years as the Deputy Chairperson of the board of the University of Gothenburg.
Presently, she is board member of the UN-PRI (the United Nation´s Principles for Responsible Investments), Vasakronan (the largest real estate company in Sweden), The Gothenburg Award for Sustainable Development and The Royal Swedish Opera. In addition, she serves on the advisory board of the Women Entrepreneur´s Opportunity Facility, the first-ever global finance facility dedicated exclusively to women-owned small and medium-sized enterprises.
Eva Halvarsson was born in 1962 and holds an MSc in Business and Economics from the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg.