Sustainable Debt Americas 2025

Track 1: GSS bonds, transition and ESG in fixed income

Panel: How the sustainable debt market can support the energy transition

• How will a rapid phase down of clean energy tax credits affect the pace of transition in the US and technology development in renewables? Where will future energy financing be focused?
• How can labelled debt be used to channel greater transition finance at an asset/project level across different sectors?
• What is required to increase the rate of transition in hard to abate sectors? What role can unlabelled debt play in decarbonising high-emitting and hard-to-abate sectors?
• What is the outlook for financing of nuclear power? What technology advances are we seeing and will they make future projects more viable?
• Do we need to focus more on identifying transition opportunities rather than risk?
• How are external providers and investors approaching transition plan assessments?

Moderator: Aneil Tripathy, Director of Financial Services, Ceres

Chuck Melko, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, HASI
Divya Bendre, Managing Director, Sustainable Banking Solutions Group & Head of Sustainable Fixed Income, Americas, BofA Securities
Swami Venkataraman, Associate Managing Director - Sustainable Finance, Global Head of Assessments, Moody's Ratings

Panel: Investment and engagement strategies for sovereign sustainable debt

• What is the outlook for labelled sovereign bond issuance?
• In the run up to COP30 how are sovereigns building on their green bond methodologies?
• How can sovereigns make direct links between their budgets and NDCs – and how will updates to NDCs drive the need for climate transition finance?
• Will we see further sovereign SLB issuance over the next year? What are the benefits and challenges for sovereign issuers and investors?
• How are market participants approaching ESG risk and impact assessment at a bond and country level?
• How to measure, report and act on climate-related risks and impacts in sovereign portfolios

Moderator:
Barbara Oldani, Lead of Sustainable Sovereign Debt Hub (SSDH), NatureFinance

Alin Charrière, Senior Advisor & Economist, Finance Canada
Eamon Aghdasi, Sovereign Analyst, Emerging Country Debt, GMO
Joe Arns, Managing Director, Head of Strategy & Scalability, Sustainability Research, ISS STOXX
Reina Berlien, Senior Vice President, Head of Responsible Investment, Brandywine Global

Panel: Data center financing and the role of sustainable debt

• What is the growth outlook for financing of data centers using labelled debt - how is this evolving in both public and private markets?
• What trends are we seeing in how UoPs of green bonds are being applied by issuers in technology, telecoms and pure-play data centre operators?
• How are data center operators developing energy strategies to meet sustainability commitments whilst also managing the surge in demand from the growth of A.I. (PPAs, onsite power generation etc)?
• What innovations are we seeing in energy efficiency and water consumption?
• How are SPO providers conducting entity- and framework-level ESG assessments?
• How do investors evaluate investment opportunities in data centers?

Moderator: Emilie Siebenborn, Head of Sustainable Finance Capital Markets Americas, BNP Paribas

Adam Guerino, Associate Portfolio Manager, Global Fixed Income, Responsible Investing strategy, Nuveen
Mehdi Khalili, Portfolio Manager, Legal & General Retirement America
Olivier Catala, Managing Director, Energy, Resources, and Infrastructure – Americas, BNP Paribas

Panel: Scaling up investment in nature and biodiversity – Debt for Nature Swaps and other innovative debt instruments

• What types of instruments are best suited to drive finance to nature?
• What are the barriers to scaling these up? What needs to change to address this?
• How to expand the use of Debt for Nature Swaps, outcome bonds and other innovative blended finance solutions?
• What are the opportunities and challenges for sovereigns, banks, investors and other participants?
• What can we learn from recent successful nature financing transactions?
• Blue finance - Identifying investable opportunities in ocean and freshwater themes

Moderator: Genevieve Redgrave, Senior Reporter, Environmental Finance

Esteban Brenes, Senior Director, Nature Finance and Investment, WWF US
Fei Wang, Senior Financial Officer, Capital Markets & Investments, World Bank Treasury
Ramzi Issa, Co-founder, Enosis Capital
Stephen Liberatore, Senior Managing Director - Head of ESG/Impact, Global Fixed Income, Nuveen

Panel: The rise of private credit – Identifying sustainable investment opportunities in private markets

• What trends and developments are we seeing in direct lending?
• Will we see further growth in green orientated and sustainable private credit funds – what is driving this?
• Where are the sustainable investment opportunities in asset-based finance?
• What is the growth potential for the Synthetic Risk Transfer (SRT) market?
• What can we learn from recent SRT transactions with green/sustainability themes in terms of structuring, pricing and expected returns?
• How do investors address the challenges around lack of consistency of ESG data in private markets?

Moderator: Michael Ferguson, Managing Director, Sustainable Finance, S&P Global Ratings

David Klausner, Vice President, ESG Research, PGIM Fixed Income
Joshua Linder, Senior Credit Analyst, Fixed Income, APG Asset Management
Michael Kashani, Managing Director, Head of Sustainable Credit & Platforms, Apollo Global Management

Panel: Investment opportunities in municipal green, social and sustainability bonds

• Issuance outlook for municipal labelled debt
• What are the factors that will drive the market and affect issuance levels and investor appetite?
• What trends and innovations are we seeing in use of proceeds?
• How are investors evaluating ESG risks and opportunities in the muni market?

Moderator: Robert Fernandez, Director, Sustainable Research, Breckinridge Capital Advisors

Adam Barsky, Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, New York Power Authority
Ellen K. Duffy, Executive Vice President for Capital Markets and Investments, New York City Housing Development Corporation
Hazim Taib, Chief Financial Officer, Connecticut Housing Finance Authority (CHFA)
Paul V. Charbonneau, Senior Vice President, Senior Research Analyst, Neuberger Berman

Panel: ESG integration in fixed income

• How is the process of investor consideration of ESG in fixed income evolving?
• Approaches to fundamental ESG analysis in both labelled and unlabelled debt
• What data points matter most to investors at an entity and bond level to enable better ESG integration decisions?
• What are the most credit material ESG factors for investors?
• What are the pillars of a robust ESG bond assessment framework?
• How do investors engage with issuers on decisions to potentially divest related to material ESG risks?

Moderator: Reshma Kulkarni, Head of ESG Ratings - US & Canada, Sustainable Fitch

Benjamin J. Bailey, Vice President of Investments, Everence & Advisor to Praxis Funds
Marina Severinovsky, Head of Sustainability, North America, Schroders
Walt Hughes, Managing Director, Breakwall Capital

Panel: Emerging markets - Where can sustainable debt have the biggest impact?

• What are the roadblocks inhibiting the flow of capital to emerging market debt and how to overcome these?
• How to identify and evaluate sustainable financing opportunities in labelled and unlabelled EM debt?
• As an investor what are the challenges with emerging market debt - how do you evaluate the risk profile? How do you manage the lack of reporting and disclosure in HY versus IG?
• What steps can be taken to give non-traditional emerging market investors the confidence to invest?

Moderator: Sireen Hajj, Director of Investor Outreach, US SIF

Claudia Castro, Portfolio Manager, EM Fixed Income, Invesco
Dolph Habeck, Managing Director and Head of Sustainable Solutions, Americas Division, SMBC
Steffen Reichold, Portfolio Manager and Emerging Markets Economist, Stone Harbor Investment Partners