The CFO's: Key Actors on the Path to a More Sustainable Economy 2022 | UNEP Finance Initiative | 15 May 2022 | Online

Sustainability has become a strategic priority for many players in the economy, both in the real sector and in the financial community. Sustainability is driven by global finance and the expectations of investors around the world, not only from a risk perspective, but also seen as a source of opportunity.

Despite these mounting pressures, it is still difficult for many CFOs to recognize the importance and impact of becoming more sustainable. Much of finance's planning, management, and reporting responsibilities still focus on financial KPIs, but a company's value and risks are not just expressed in financial statements.

The CFO needs to embed sustainability into strategic and functional themes, with a view to making his entity represent a sustainable business. The company must become an agent of change, helping to ease the path of the transition to a lower-carbon and fairer economy. For this, it must try to reduce the negative impacts that its operations generate, and increase the positive impacts from the environmental, social and economic point of view.

To carry out this cultural transformation, cross-cutting cooperation is necessary not only at the internal level of the organization, but also a proactive interaction with other actors in society and, in particular, there must be a very close relationship between the business world and the agents of the financial system. In this process, the CFOs of both companies and financial institutions are not only stakeholders, but also key players in leading this path towards achieving sustainable results.

Objective:

The purpose of this meeting is to present the advances, opportunities and challenges of the banking and corporate sectors in terms of sustainability, for which the strategies and actions that both companies and financial institutions can take to accelerate the transition process towards a sustainable economy will be analyzed. more sustainable, more adequately managing the current risks and barriers, and identifying business opportunities through the innovation of products and services that they offer to their clients.

Efforts will be made to make this meeting a motivating environment for both sectors, companies and financial entities, to exchange visions, experiences and present their challenges in the search for beneficial solutions for all the actors involved.