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International Sustainable Finance Centre (ISFC)

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International Sustainable Finance Centre (ISFC)
FormationJune 2020
FounderLinda Zeilina
TypeNon-profit organization
HeadquartersPrague, Czech Republic
Region
Central and Eastern Europe
Websitehttps://www.isfc.org

The International Sustainable Finance Centre (ISFC) is a think tank that examines sustainable finance topics. Based in Prague, Czech Republic, it places a particular focus on the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region.

It is an apolitical non-profit organisation that conducts independent research but does not engage in advocacy work. Its mission is “to help businesses, financial institutions, policy-makers, and communities understand how to benefit from the transition to a more sustainable and just economy.”[1]

Background[edit]

ISFC was founded in June 2020 by Linda Zeilina who also acts as the organisation’s Chief Executive Officer. It is advised by 17 members of its advisory board, on which sit Erik Berglöf, Ben Caldecott, and Lisa Sachs, among others.[2]

The Centre was set up with the aim to leverage expert knowledge to inform policy makers, civil society, and private companies in CEE and beyond. It mainly organises events, does research, convenes stakeholders in dedicated hubs, and educates on sustainable finance topics.[3] ISFC is a member of the World Benchmarking Alliance, a community of more than 200 organisations committed to fostering the private sector's contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals.[4]

ISFC finances its work through the support by the European Climate Foundation, Visegrad Fund, EEA and Norway Grants, Open Society Institute, British Embassy Prague,[5] and by the European Climate Initiative under the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action,[6]

Work[edit]

In 2021, ISFC was part of a working group that researched the social dimension of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investment criteria, which also comprised Thomson Reuters Foundation, Refinitiv, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, White & Case, Eco-Age and The Mekong Club.[7]  The goal was to discover insights that help bring practical, relevant, and comparable ESG ratings. The white paper emphasises the relevance of the social ESG pillar and shows that its inclusion in investment consideration can avoid risks and help identify more profitable and resilient business opportunities for investors.[8]

In the same year, ISFC’s CEO Linda Zeilina cooperated with the European University Institute on a policy brief titled “Will the EU Sustainable Finance Rules Deliver?”, in which the authors find that the EU sustainable finance framework will accelerate sustainable investments and suggest complementing it with carbon pricing.[9]

To inform regional policy makers, ISFC published reports that among others, assess the Czech National Recovery Plan,[10] advise CEE countries on how to leverage the EU Fit for 55 package[11] and the RePowerEU plan,[12] and uncover opportunities for CEE to align energy security and the European Green Deal priorities.[13] The think tank also explored the impacts of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on the EU decarbonisation agenda,[14] and on its specific aspects such as agriculture[15] and heavy industry.[16] The Centre is part of an industry taskforce comprising think tanks from the Visegrad region, that advises regional stakeholders on decarbonising hard to abate sectors.[17]

In addition, ISFC works on more granular financial topics, in particular on the EU Sustainable Finance Agenda and the role of private capital in financing the green transition. Such topics include sustainable investing[18] and private finance[19] as well as the EU Taxonomy[20] and green bonds.[21][22] An analysis referenced by other organisations[23][24] criticised the EU Taxonomy Complementary Delegated Act, which grants a green investment label to natural gas and nuclear energy, as misguided.[25]

The Centre’s commentary on shortcomings of the EU Emissions Trading System has been published in Czech media,[26] on scientific blogs,[27] and in international media,[28] where CEO Linda Zeilina first coined the term “Green Iron Curtain” to describe the risk for the CEE region to economically fall behind Western Europe due to a delayed adaptation to the European Green Deal.

Initiatives[edit]

The annual flagship event of the centre is the CEE Sustainable Finance Summit (in short, CEE Summit), a 5-days conference on topics around sustainability and sustainable finance with a focus on Central and Eastern Europe.[29] The first online edition in May 2021 featured 74 speakers across 16 panel discussions.[30] Speakers included Alexander Stubb, Sylvie Goulard, Sandrine Dixson-Decleve, Julian Popov, and Jerzy Buzek.[31]

In May 2022, the second CEE Summit was held in person at the Augustine Hotel in Prague.[32][33] With ISFC as the main organizer, the Summit was co-organized by Instrat Foundation,[34] Equilibrium Institute, and Mesa 10, and in partnership with 34 organizations, such as the UNEP Finance Initiative,[35] European Investment Bank, Hospodarske Noviny,[36] and Euractiv.[37] 250 participants attended the 27 sessions with 83 panellists, among whom were Ian Bremmer, Alexander Stubb, Ivan Miklos, Erik Berglöf, Sasja Beslik, and Simon Zadek.[38]

In 2022, ISFC established the Czech Sustainable Investment Forum (SIF), a membership platform for Czech financial market participants to engage on sustainable investment issues. It is chaired by ISFC’s Chief Operating Officer Julian Toth.[39] The Czech SIF is an observer member of the European Sustainable Investment Forum (Eurosif).[40] In addition, ISFC and Soulmates Ventues, a Czech investment management firm, launched the Sustainability Hub Prague,[41] host to the 4th Cassini Hackathon in the Czech Republic about opportunities to leverage EU space data.[42]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ "ISFC". ISFC. Retrieved 2022-10-08.
  2. ↑ "Advisory Board". ISFC. Retrieved 2022-10-08.
  3. ↑ SustainabilityNews (2021-03-10). "Julian Toth from ISFC: Our slogan could be "Where BlackRock meets Greenpeace"". Sustainability News. Retrieved 2022-10-08.
  4. ↑ "International Sustainable Finance Centre (ISFC)". World Benchmarking Alliance. Retrieved 2022-10-09.
  5. ↑ "Partners". ISFC. Retrieved 2022-10-08.
  6. ↑ "Decarbonisation of the Industrial Sector". v4decarb.org. Retrieved 2022-10-08.
  7. ↑ Thomson Reuters Foundation. "Working Group assembles to bust myths surrounding 'Social' dimension of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investment criteria". www.trust.org. Retrieved 2022-10-08.
  8. ↑ White & Case LLP. "Amplifying the "S" in ESG: Investor Myth Buster" (PDF). Retrieved 2022-10-09.
  9. ↑ Cornillie, Jan; Delbeke, Jos; Vis, Peter; Zeilina, Linda (2021). Will the EU sustainable finance rules deliver?. European University Institute. ISBN 978-92-9466-015-2. Search this book on
  10. ↑ "Czech RRP Assessment". ISFC. Retrieved 2022-10-08.
  11. ↑ ISFC (2021-07-14). "Fit for 55 package press release: Opportunities and risks for CEE" (PDF).
  12. ↑ "Pursuing RePowerEU". ISFC. Retrieved 2022-10-08.
  13. ↑ Globsec. "Identifying short-term opportunities to align the Central European Energy Security with the 2030 European Green Deal goals in Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia" (PDF). Retrieved 2022-10-09.
  14. ↑ "Ukraine is systemically important for the EU and its decarbonisation agenda - CEENERGYNEWS". ceenergynews.com. 2022-03-04. Retrieved 2022-10-08.
  15. ↑ Taškárová, Ivana (2022-04-13). "Udržitelné zemědělství potřebujeme i v dobách krize". euractiv.cz (in čeština). Retrieved 2022-10-08.
  16. ↑ Šmigol, Ondřej (2022-07-15). "Reálně hrozí, že se průmysl odstěhuje - EchoPrime.cz". echoprime.cz (in čeština). Retrieved 2022-10-08.
  17. ↑ "Industry Decarbonisation Taskforce". Retrieved 2022-10-09.
  18. ↑ Ehl, Martin (2021-01-13). "Z BlackRocku přešel k zeleným financím. Udržitelné investice jsou odolnější a výnosnější, říká Julian Toth". Hospodářské noviny (HN.cz) (in čeština). Retrieved 2022-10-08.
  19. ↑ Svetlana Máčalová (2021-03-25). "Fond spravedlivé transformace: Jaká je role soukromého kapitálu při financování". Euroskop (in čeština). Retrieved 2022-10-08.
  20. ↑ "O zelenou energetiku je zájem, EU nemusí nic přikazovat, říká expert na finance | Aktuálně.cz". Aktuálně.cz - Víte, co se právě děje (in čeština). 2022-02-02. Retrieved 2022-10-08.
  21. ↑ Euractiv, Eva Faltusová (2021-11-06). "Nevíte, kam investovat peníze? Hitem Evropy jsou zelené dluhopisy". Deník.cz (in čeština). Retrieved 2022-10-08.
  22. ↑ Faltusová, Eva (2021-11-05). "Zelené dluhopisy jdou v Evropě na dračku. Zlepšují image a pomáhají s ochranou klimatu". euractiv.cz (in čeština). Retrieved 2022-10-08.
  23. ↑ Kate Levick, Tsvetelina Kuzmanova, Johannes Schroeten (2022-01-19). "Mapping out a way through the Taxonomy crisis" (PDF). E3G.CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
  24. ↑ Politico (2022-01-20). "EXPLAINER: EU TAXONOMY & GAS" (PDF). Retrieved 2022-10-09.
  25. ↑ David Nemecek, Julian Stöckle (2022-01-14). "EU Taxonomy Complementary Delegated Act: Re-defining sustainability? Why gas & nuclear are not green" (PDF). ISFC.
  26. ↑ Euractiv.cz (2021-09-03). "Východ a západ EU může rozdělit „zelená opona". Zemím jako Česko už nestačí jen snižovat emise". HlídacíPes.org (in čeština). Retrieved 2022-10-08.
  27. ↑ Godet, Claire (2022-07-18). "The EU Emissions Trading Scheme: an imperfect route to decarbonisation". The Loop. Retrieved 2022-10-08.
  28. ↑ Godet, Claire; Zeilina, Linda (2021-09-01). "ETS reform: How to avoid a new 'green iron curtain' in Europe". www.euractiv.com. Retrieved 2022-10-08.
  29. ↑ "CEE Sustainable Finance Summit: Navigating the path to a sustainable future | Green Finance Platform". www.greenfinanceplatform.org. Retrieved 2022-10-08.
  30. ↑ "CEE Sustainable Finance Summit 2021 - Summit Report" (PDF). Retrieved 2022-10-09.
  31. ↑ "CEE Summit 2021". CEE Summit. Retrieved 2022-10-08.
  32. ↑ "CEE Summit". CEE Summit. Retrieved 2022-10-08.
  33. ↑ "CEE Sustainable Finance Summit – LSFI". Luxembourg Sustainable Finance Initiative. Retrieved 2022-10-08.
  34. ↑ Instrat Foundation. "CEE Sustainable Finance Summit 16–20.05.2022 – Instrat". Retrieved 2022-10-08.
  35. ↑ "CEE Sustainable Finance Summit". United Nations Environment Programme - Finance Initiative. Retrieved 2022-10-09.
  36. ↑ Ehl, Martin (2022-05-18). "Fotovoltaika už není sprosté slovo. Pět pravidel pro pohyb v zelené ekonomice". Hospodářské noviny (HN.cz) (in čeština). Retrieved 2022-10-08.
  37. ↑ Vitásek, Jan (2022-04-26). "CEE Sustainable Finance Summit". euractiv.cz (in čeština). Retrieved 2022-10-08.
  38. ↑ "CEE Sustainable Finance Summit 2022 - Summit Report" (PDF). CEE Summit. Retrieved 2022-10-09.
  39. ↑ "CzechSIF". CzechSIF. Retrieved 2022-10-08.
  40. ↑ "Eurosif - The European Sustainable Investment Forum on LinkedIn: #NewMember #ResponsableInvestment #SustainableFinance". www.linkedin.com. Retrieved 2022-10-08.
  41. ↑ "Sustainability Hub Prague". Sustainability Hub Prague. Retrieved 2022-10-08.
  42. ↑ "CASSINI Hackathons | Czech Republic". hackathons.cassini.eu. Retrieved 2022-10-08.




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