- Biodiversity loss and the financial sector’s potential to prevent it were discussed at the Finnish Finance Nature Summit held in Helsinki on 20 November 2023.
- Keynote speakers of the invitation-only event included Global Head of Sustainable Investing at J.P. Morgan Jennifer Wu, Technical Director of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) Emily McKenzie and Head of DNB’s Sustainable Finance Office Marc Reinke.
- The event was organised by Finance Finland, the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra and the Confederation of Finnish Industries in cooperation with Kari & Pantsar Co.
“The Finnish saying goes: ‘The forest answers in the same way one shouts to it’. We have been yelling at our forests, our seas, our mountains, at the living and non-living elements on our planet. And they have answered in ways we should be gravely concerned about.”
Head of De Nederlandsche Bank’s (DNB) Sustainable Finance Office and co-chair of the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) Marc Reinke shook everyone with his powerful delivery on the stage of the Finnish Finance Nature Summit. Reinke described how the Dutch central bank has been a global frontrunner in analysing nature-related risks in the financial market. He also gave the Finnish financial sector pointers on what the sector should focus even more attention to.
The second keynote of the day was given by Technical Director of the Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) Emily McKenzie. In her presentation, McKenzie described how the TNFD framework enables companies to identify and manage the environmental impact and dependencies and the nature-related risks and opportunities of their business. McKenzie also encouraged the Finnish financial sector to start implementing TNDF reporting, which gives investors and financiers valuable data enabling them to recognise nature-related aspects in their decisions.
McKenzie emphasised that the financial sector needs a dependable set of tools to utilise its full potential in halting and reversing biodiversity loss. “What we’ve been missing for nature loss was a measurement framework equivalent to the greenhouse gas protocol that would enable comparable and consistent metrics and target setting.”
One of the Summit’s most anticipated speakers was J.P. Morgan’s Global Head of Sustainable Investing Jennifer Wu. She presented practical examples of how J.P. Morgan has integrated biodiversity-related data and metrics into investment consideration and turned it into a business advantage. Wu recommended three steps for investors to consider:
“The first is to identify the sectors and industries that have the biggest potential impact on nature, then to develop sector- or industry-specific scorecards based on their key risks. The third step is to engage and evaluate companies to identify the leaders from the laggards.”
The Summit also included two panel discussions. In the first one, the panellists talked about the financial sector’s biodiversity measures, and in the second panel, financial sector leaders and Members of the European Parliament discussed the relationship between European policy design and the sector’s nature action.
Recordings of the keynotes and panels:
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