Sustainability MENA: Financing the Region’s Transition 2020 | Euromoney Conferences | 3 February 2020 | TBA, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

The Middle East and North Africa region has huge potential for green and sustainable capital markets. Around the world, political and social attitudes to the environment are changing fast and the MENA region is no exception. The urgency of the need to respond to climate change is becoming ever more apparent, and it can no longer be ignored in financial markets.

At the same time, there is a wider shift going on in the way capitalism is practised and understood. It is fast becoming part of orthodox thinking that business must have a social purpose. This change has a special resonance in the MENA region, since Islamic financing principles has always embodied social responsibility at their core.

Given the exceptionally promising prospects in the region, Euromoney and GlobalCapital are delighted to launch Sustainability MENA: Financing the Region’s Transition, an event that will span not only capital markets products such as green bonds, sukuk and sustainability-linked loans but also the whole landscape of how to stimulate investment in greening the economy of the MENA region, and what policies are needed to drive this transition.

Topics will include:
• Can the region’s economy, including the energy sector, become 1.5/2 degree compatible?
• Pioneers of sustainable finance: case studies and interviews with sovereign borrowers, development finance institutions and corporate borrowers
• Can the region one day lead the world in SRI innovation and impact?
• MENA banks as green and social bond and sukuk issuers and investors: a match made in heaven?
• Sustainable infrastructure: harnessing the capital markets to build green and socially responsible projects in the Middle East and North Africa
• The role of development banks in the region’s transition
• The global investor base: how can it play a greater role in the region’s nascent SRI markets?
• How engaged is the Middles East investor base in SRI?

2020 Speakers

Qais Al Suwaidi
Assistant Expert in Climate Change Management, Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, United Arab Emirates

Ellen Hamilton
Lead Urban Specialist, The World Bank

Alberto De Paoli
Chief Financial Officer, ENEL

Ibrahim Al Zubi
Chief Sustainability Officer, MAF

John Arentz
Head of Treasury, Majid Al Futtaim

Victoria Behn
Director, Middle East and Africa, Euromoney Conferences

Farnam Bidgoli
Head of Sustainable Bonds, Debt Capital Markets EMEA, HSBC

Jean-Philippe Bonsaudo
Private Sector Partnership Manager, World Green Economy Organization

Toby Fildes
Managing Editor, GlobalCapital

Yasser Gado
Treasurer, Islamic Development Bank

Raji Hattar
Chief Sustainability Officer, Aramex

Jon Hay
Corporate Finance and Sustainability Editor, GlobalCapital

Ali Adnan Ibrahim
Global Head of Sustainability and Social Responsibility, Al Baraka Banking Group

Mohieddine Kronfol
Chief Investment Officer, Global Sukuk and MENA Fixed Income, Franklin Templeton Investments

Sarmad Mirza
Executive Director, Debt Capital Markets Middle East, Standard Chartered Bank

Rafik Selim
Principal Economist, SEMED Region, EBRD

2020 Partners

CO-HOST:
• Global Capital

STRATEGIC PARTNER:
• Dubai International Financial Centre

CO-SPONSORS:
• HSBC
• Standard Chartered

ASSOCIATED PARTNERS:
• GBSA