Green finance and sustainable finance
Speakers:
Utku Ünver, Partner - Pekin Bayar Mizrahi (Moderator)
Nick Merritt, Partner - Norton Rose Fulbright
David Milligan, Partner - Norton Rose Fulbright
Louisa Lynch, Partner - Norton Rose Fulbright
In this second session of the Turkey webinar series: 2022 ESG trends, partners from Norton Rose Fulbright and alliance firm Pekin Bayar Mizrahi discussed recent global and regional trends in Green Finance and Sustainable Finance.
Shareholders are incorporating ESG standards into their asset value assessments and choices, and businesses with strong green initiatives are viewed to achieve valid and reliable results in the market. ESG issues are becoming increasingly significant for companies all over the world as the legal and regulatory landscape evolves and investors, clients, employees, and other stakeholders' expectations rise and of course, money will be needed to execute the objectives in the short run. Banks in Turkey, like in many other jurisdictions, have come to play an important role in the energy transition and, more broadly, in the implementation of ESG objectives. In this regard, Utku Ünver gave the background about ESG finance marketing in Turkey and focused mostly on green loans introduced in the early 2000’s.
Nick Merritt shared his personal perspective on new trends as well as his insights regarding macro factors such as Net Zero. He talked about the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals and how climate change was incorporated into them in order to decarbonize the earth.
David Milligan went deeper into sustainable finance and concentrated on the loan market, identifying the three main loans put together by the global loan market associations, namely, green loans, sustainability- linked loans and social loans and explained details of their popularity.
Louisa Lynch, who is based in Dubai, pointed out the three principal loans in the Middle East, discussing the difficulties she encountered in the market, which is still in its early stages of development, sustainability-linked loans being offered in the UAE only for the past two years.
