Roadmap for the Visegrad Group

Sustainable Investment Roadmap - Climate Investing in the V4 countries

The Visegrad Group countries of Poland, Czechia, Hungary and Slovakia have seen remarkable economic growth in recent decades, accompanied (and made possible) by extensive use of fossil fuel resources. Current EU plans to decarbonise and transition to climate-sustainable growth therefore pose a major challenge for sustained economic growth in the region.

Can climate investing strengthen the political, economic, and strategic position of the V4 region??

ISFC's Sustainable Investment Roadmap seeks to answer this question. The report highlights investment areas best suited to speeding up the transition to climate-sustainable growth and provides ideas for accelerating or removing barriers to this transition. The Roadmap does not present investment advice - instead, it is a practical resource for stakeholders to identify policy priorities and tweaks, and to help identify the sectors that hold the greatest promise for decarbonisation.

Download the full report and the Executive Summary here .

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In the news?

ESMA: Responsible Investor writes that less than 1% of EU funds meet the EU's ecolabel criteria - analysis of more than 3000 sustainability-orientated funds by EU watchdog reveals that few Articles 8 and 9 vehicles would make the cut.

Financial Times : Simon Mundy and colleagues have released an article on the ESG trends to watch in 2023.

Sustainable East: While Thai regulators excluded gas from the green category in their draft taxonomy, Singapore’s Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment announced the appointment of its first ever Government Chief Sustainability Officer, following the establishment of the Singapore Green Plan 2030 .

IFRS Foundation: The Foundation Trustees announced plans to open an office for International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) in Beijing, after signing an agreement with China’s Ministry of Finance.

Rethinking supply chains: Although the localisation of global supply chains has just begun, available data reveals business networks and exposes potential violations across corporations, writes Rana Foroohar .

Banks for net-zero: HSBC?is among the largest banks to confirm it will stop funding new oil and gas fields and expect more information from energy clients over their plans to cut carbon emissions.

Data resource for carbon markets: The World Bank ,?International Emissions Trading Association , and partners launched a free database called the Climate Action Data Trust (CAD Trust) with the aim of enhancing transparency and environmental integrity of carbon credit transactions and international carbon markets.

Accelerated change amidst energy crisis: Sam Butler-Sloss and Kingsmill Bond write about 2022 being a turning point for the fossil fuel system and the growth of renewable energy.

Nuclear plants in Poland: Warsaw announced the kick-starting of two separate projects to build atomic plants with partners from the US and South Korea.

A poor forecast for the EU economy: The eurozone economy is set to shrink in 2023 due to high inflation and potential energy shortages, causing distress in the labour market, according to Financial Times poll of economists.

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Recommended readings

Sustainability Landscape for Dummies: A great introductory guide to sustainable finance for anyone interested in the current ESG landscape, written by Alexis Bagué .

Euractiv : Peter Sweatman and Martin Portman write about how the EU can leverage action on sustainability for competitive advantage: Speed, simplicity and focus: How the EU can make a success of the competitive sustainability 'race to the top'.

Wind power in Europe: Giles Dickson , CEO of WindEurope , has written an informative LinkedIn post on 2023 for wind power in Europe, definitely worth a read!

Information flows and capital allocation: In this paper , Sirio Aramonte and Frank Packer discuss how to enhance information governance in sustainable finance, as well as the set of regulatory provisions needed to ensure that all market participants receive a baseline of reliable information.

Future of steel: Climate Bonds Initiative provides guidance about how to guide industry and investors onto a climate-aligned pathway for steel with technologies such as green hydrogen, renewable energy, and carbon capture and storage. Similarly, Agora Energiewende analyses strategies to reduce the emissions from steel production using the example of Germany, the world’s 8th largest steel producer.

EBA's Roadmap: The European Banking Authority (EBA) published a roadmap outlining its approach to integrate ESG risk considerations in the banking framework and support the EU’s sustainability efforts over the next three years.

Gas Shortages for CZ: Michaela Valentová reacts to the International Energy Agency (IEA) 's new report on the natural gas supply shortfall and provides a summary in 9 points from the Czech perspective.

The End of ESG?: "ESG is both extremely important and nothing special", writes Alex Edmans in its recently revised publication discussing the current ESG practices and the necessary shift in practitioners' approach.

Overstated claims: Kim Schumacher, PhD, CEnv writes about the phenomena of greenwashing and competence greenwashing , a trend that is becoming more apparent with the increasing appeal of sustainable finance, ESG investing and green growth.

Private Equity Climate Risk: A new report released by Carbon Tracker reveals that The Carlyle Group - one of the world's largest private equity firms - is invested in upstream energy companies unlikely to be economically viable in a low-carbon economy, exposing investors to significant climate and financial risk.

On the precipice: Global Economic Outlook for Q1 published by abrdn foretells a global recession, exploring the depth and severity of the downturn.

Geopolitical risks?of 2023: Eurasia Group 's annual forecast of the political risks that are most likely to play out over the course of the year is out now.

Economic history: Senior economics writer from The Economist picks 3 books and 2 papers to understand the history of Western capitalism.

When Finance Talks Nature: Climate & Company together with WWF have published a report that focuses on how to create a common language for ambitious and nature-positive sustainable finance taxonomies - by aligning common design features and integrating nature-related scenario analysis.

Industry decarbonisation in Poland: WiseEuropa has published its country report on the heavy industry decarbonisation in Poland (steel, cement, and chemicals), as part of the European Climate Initiative (EUKI) supported project: www.v4decarb.org

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Events?

Austria: The Euromoney Central and Eastern European Forum will take place in Vienna on 10-11 January, gathering major financial market participants interested in the CEE region. ISFC is taking part in a discussion organised by Erste Group on 10 January, focused on sustainable asset management, together with Ingo Bleier, CFA , Philipp Mueller from Blue Orchard Finance , Walter Hatak from Erste Asset Management GmbH , and Andrea Johanides from WWF .

Prague, Czechia: ISFC is hosting an informal roundtable discussion on 19 January about CSRD and non-financial reporting in practice. If you'd like to come along, please contact our colleague: [email protected]

Prague, Czechia: Together with Soulmates Ventures , ISFC is launching Sustainability Hub Prague on 19 January- with the aim of building a community focused on sustainability in practice. To request an invite to the launch, please email [email protected]

Bratislava, Slovakia: Národná banka Slovenska is hosting a?special one-day event in partnership with ISFC focused on climate and sustainability-related risks on 7 February in Bratislava. The deadline for registration is?15.1.2023.

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Podcasts

The Economist has compiled a list of the best 2022 podcasts .

Fakta o klimatu has released a podcast episode on cement and steel industry decarbonisation, featuring their Director Ondrá? P?ibyla and our colleague Karel Vold?ich .

Sustainable Investing Roadmap by ISFC: On the Ranní Brífink podcast , Martin Ehl from Hospodá?ské noviny interviewed our new colleague Michal Hruby about the report findings and recommendations.

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Short videos

Financial Times Youtube channel has a fantastic short video which asks whether we are too obsessed with our personal #carbon footprints.

Florence School of Banking & Finance released its #fbfpills Youtube video with our CEO Linda Zeilina-Cross , talking about the unused potential of #esg investing.

NextGen investors: In the newest episode of The Sustainable Finance Podcast, Deborah Yang , CEO and Co-Founder of Daizy.com, a sustainability insight app for conscious investing, talks about how young investors integrate ESG data into investment apps.

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