Following an invitation from the newly founded Hellenic Treasury Association (HAT), IENE actively participated in the 1st HAT Conference held on Friday, December 10 at the Life Gallery Hotel in Ekali, a suburb of Athens. Following an invitation from the newly founded Hellenic Treasury Association (HAT), IENE actively participated in the 1st HAT Conference held on Friday, December 10 at the Life Gallery Hotel in Ekali, a suburb of Athens. The conference attracted prominent speakers from the Treasury sector, who analyzed issues related to Risk Management, Treasury outside Greece, and the prospects of the sector around the main topic which was "Sustainable Finance: Paving the way to a Green Finance".
IENE participated with Costis Stambolis, Chairman and Executive Director of the Institute and Mrs. Irene Terzidou, IENE Research Fellow, who contributed two presentations which between them covered latest developments in the current energy environment, the prevailing investment trends and the shift to Green Finance.
Costis Stambolis in his presentation (see here) entitled "Global Energy Trends and Investments", described the structure of the global energy system, where the demand today is dominated by fossil fuels (81%), making it clear that over the last 45 years the percentage participation of fossil fuels in the global energy mix increased rather than decreased. He then referred to RES and Oil & Gas investments, where despite the trillions of dollars invested in Renewable Energy Sources (RES) over the past 10 years, their share covers just less than 4% of the global energy mix. He concluded by emphasizing that nevertheless, the prevailing trend will be the electrification of everything, since through electrical systems economies of scale can be achieved and at the same time emissions can be controlled and hence, RES applications will have a better chance of expanding.
Mrs. Terzidou on her part (see here) expanded on the subject of "Sustainable Finance and Green Bonds as a Financing Tool in Promoting Clean Fuels" and covered sustainability issues, and the integration of non-financial information in the business strategy (ESG criteria). She then focused on continued on the amount of funding required for green investments in order to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, thus highlighting the large investment gap that exists today and finally referred to a pioneering tool for mobilizing financial flows to sustainable investment, i.e. Green Bonds.
