Navigating Green Taxonomies: Implications for Commercial Banks and the Green Agenda in Asia and beyond
Date and Time: Thursday, 27 February 2025, 14:30 – 15:30 pm Hongkong time | 8:30 – 9:30 am South Africa Time | 10: 30 – 11:30 am Azerbaijan time
The role of green taxonomies in driving green finance is pivotal across Asia and beyond. The webinar Navigating Green Taxonomies: Implications for Commercial Banks and the Green Agenda in Asia and beyond will explore how green taxonomies help commercial banks align financial practices with global climate goals. The webinar will also highlight the importance of interoperability and comparability of taxonomies, featuring insights from the Roadmap for Advancing Interoperability and Comparability of Sustainable Finance Taxonomies, launched at COP29 — a key milestone in fostering harmonized taxonomies across jurisdictions and sectors worldwide.
Join the Sustainable Banking and Finance Network (SBFN) and The Alliance for Green Commercial Banks for this expert panel discussion with representatives from central banks, financial institutions, and key stakeholders, including IFC, Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Central Bank of the Republic of Azerbaijan, HSBC, and Security Bank Philippines.
- Deep dive into the emerging global trends and the development of taxonomy frameworks in Asia and beyond.
- Gain knowledge on the essence of interoperable and comparable taxonomies driving sustainable finance ecosystem across diverse jurisdictions and sectors.
- Explore practical insights on the opportunities and challenges for the banking sector to leverage green taxonomies.
| Time | Activity | |
|---|---|---|
| 14:30-14:35 | Opening and Keynote Address: The Importance of green taxonomies for commercial banks and climate agenda in Asia and globally Speaker: Carlos Serrano, Head of the Secretariat, The Alliance for Green Commercial Banks, IFC | |
| 14:35-15:15 | Panel Discussion: Navigating and practical implication of green taxonomies in different country contexts Moderator: Louise Gardiner, Senior Operations Officer, Financial Institutions Group Africa | Climate Finance Lead, Eastern and Southern Africa, IFC Discussants:
Discussion Topics:
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| 15:15-15:25 | Q&A session | |
| 16:25-16:30 | Closing remarks Speaker: Rong Zhang, Global Coordinator, Sustainable Banking and Finance Network (SBFN), IFC | |
About Speakers
Anna Liza Eugenio
Sustainable Finance Head, Senior Assistant Vice President, Security Bank
Anne brings over 30 years of combined experience in banking and sustainable finance. She is currently the Head of Sustainable Finance at Security Bank, where she manages large corporate accounts. Prior to this, she served as the Deputy Head of Sustainable Development Finance at Bank of the Philippine Islands, where she earned recognitions, including the Best Governance Program at the Sustainability Innovation Awards, for her team’s invaluable contribution to awareness of relevant sustainability laws and ordinances among relationship managers and credit officers through the creation of the Sustainability Bootcamp. Before transitioning to sustainable finance, Anne was a top-performing Relationship Manager for preferred accounts at BPI.
Louise Gardiner
Senior Operations Officer, Financial Institutions Group Africa | Climate Finance Lead, Eastern and Southern Africa, IFC
Louise has been a sustainable finance and disclosure specialist with IFC, part of the World Bank Group, since 2005, and from 2012 to 2024 was Africa coordinator in the Secretariat of the IFC-facilitated, Sustainable Banking and Finance Network (SBFN), a voluntary learning platform for financial sector regulators and banking associations from over 70 emerging markets. Louise has worked closely with regulators, banking associations, and banks to create markets for sustainable finance. As Practice Group Lead for Climate Finance in Eastern and Southern Africa, Louise is responsible for advancing IFC’s advisory support on sustainable finance for financial institutions, stock exchanges, and financial sector regulators in the region. This includes building capacity on climate risk, reporting, and innovative instruments, including blended finance.
Xiao Liu
Head of Sustainable Loans, EMEA and APAC, HSBC Infrastructure Finance
Xiao has 13 years of experience in high-profile teams in Global Banking and Markets division of HSBC. She is responsible for Sustainable Lending in APAC and EMEA regions. Her primary objectives are scaling the Sustainable Lending offering to clients and driving a consistent standard globally. Xiao remains at the forefront of the sustainable finance market since 2015. She has extensive experience in both public and private market. She has brought several innovative sustainable finance transactions to the market.
Carlos Serrano
Head of the Secretariat, The Alliance for Green Commercial Banks, IFC
Carlos Serrano is the Principal Operations Officer and Head of the Secretariat for the Alliance for Green Commercial Banks, a global initiative of IFC that, in Asia has partnered with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), to support commercial banks on their transformational journey to become leading green banks.
A seasoned leader in Climate Finance Advisory & Knowledge Services, he has a career spanning over 35 years in senior banking positions across four continents, including institutions such as BBVA Group, Inter-American Development Bank, BID Invest, and since 2013, IFC, where at FIG, he has significantly contributed to promoting sustainability in the banking industry. Previously, he served as IFC’s Climate Finance Advisory and Knowledge Services Lead for the Latin-American Financial Sector, providing strategic support and founding the Green Banking Academy (GBAC). Under his leadership, GBAC mobilized US$3.7 billion in climate finance, provided climate advisory to 40 institutions from 15 countries, trained 43,000 professionals, and awarded 813 climate finance scholarships.
Rustam Tahirov
Director of Financial Sector Sustainable Development Department, Central Bank of Republic of Azerbaijan
Rustam Tahirov is the Director of the Financial Sector Sustainable Development Department at the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBAR). In this role, he is responsible for developing and implementing initiatives for financial sector and market growth. He has played a key role in developing the Azerbaijan Sustainable Finance Roadmap (2023-2026), which sets out a structured plan to establish enabling sustainable finance ecosystem. He also leads the cross-institutional Expert Group working on the Azerbaijan National Green Taxonomy, a framework to guide green finance investments. Additionally, he leads joint CBAR and SBFN’s initiative to improve the global alignment of sustainable finance taxonomies, focusing on building consistency in taxonomy definitions and concepts across different jurisdictions, regions and sectors.
Ronald Young
Head of Sustainable Banking Development, Hong Kong Monetary Authority
Ronald Young is responsible for the formulation and implementation of policy to promote sustainable banking activities and facilitate the banking sector’s management of climate related risks. Prior to his current role, Ronald was Head of Sustainable Finance for Asia at a major international bank based in Hong Kong, leading the bank’s sustainable banking activities in the region including strategy formulation, client engagement, transaction structuring and risk management. Ronald has over 20 years of experience in international banking, finance and investment based in New York, London, Hong Kong and Singapore, focusing on sustainable finance and transactions in the energy, infrastructure and natural resources sectors.
Rong Zhang
Global Coordinator of Sustainable Banking and Finance Network (SBFN), IFC
Rong Zhang leads IFC’s support to the Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) Networks and Thought Leadership. In her role, she manages ESG global advisory programs and knowledge products to provide technical assistance and build capacity of clients and ESG practitioners, and convene networks to support government and market over various issues such as sustainable and climate finance, ESG standards, disclosure and transparency. She is instrumental in building and expanding the IFC-supported Sustainable Banking and Finance Network (SBFN). She represents IFC and SBFN in various international sustainable finance fora and networks including the G20 Sustainable Finance Working Group (G20 SFWG), the EU International Platform for Sustainable Finance (EU IPSF), the Central Banks and Supervisors Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS), and the Equator Principles Association (EPA).