Sustainable Finance Live 2023 will bring together the industry’s experts to discuss and examine the hottest topics in sustainable finance and map out strategies for future development in the sector. This week, Finextra spoke to Triodos Bank’s Amandine Tetot, head of project finance. Tetot will be a speaker on the session ‘How can we accelerate the delivery of clean and affordable energy?’.

Tetot remarked that financial institutions hold the responsibility to drive forward climate awareness and sustainable action, but the skills and talent needs to be present to push forward green goals. She emphasised that not only ESG should be prioritised, but financial organisations need to be committed to biodiversity, nature-related risks, and the societal impacts of their decisions and products.

She highlighted that artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to ignite a rapid change in the sector, but in the creation of AI technologies and collection of data, ethical values need to be in place to prevent bias.

“There is a major, if not indispensable, role for AI and data analytics tools to drive sustainable finance to the next level. From more efficient and better-informed decision making, to embedding climate risk, to impact measurement and transparency, the scope is extremely large. Two roles I am particularly looking forward to are in the development of a deeper, more granular and dynamic understanding of both sub-sector transition pathways and supply chains and their influence in all the products and services that are being financed.”

Tetot stated that while there has been significant progress in creating frameworks and redirecting information towards climate action in the financial sector, there is still much more to be done in terms of action and the formation of a genuine culture of climate awareness within companies to push forth the climate agenda.

She added that new regulation shows promise, with the EU taxonomy promoting transparency and opposing greenwashing in the sector. However, Tetot believed that there are still kinks to be straightened out when it comes to regulatory frameworks – stating that organisation for economic activities with a positive societal impact are not prevalent in the industry.

Commenting on the need to prioritise green energy in the sector, Tetot explained: “Green energy generation is already a focus of many in the financial industry. The dynamics and landscape have changed dramatically over the past decade and renewable energy generation is now generally a well-funded and competitive market. Accelerating the deployment of green energy now needs the financial industry to look at it hand-in-hand with complementary solutions, services and technologies and its supply chain. Green energy should now also mean more efficient and smarter use and production of energy, more efficient use of the materials it needs and more efficiency in its transport and storage.”

Looking to future trends in the sector, Tetot is expectant that the sector will shift towards nature preservation and the circular economy, she outlined: “We need to look beyond just driving to net zero and focus on a holistic goal for a thriving society and planet.”

Remarking on what she is anticipating in this year’s Sustainable Finance Live conference, Tetot said: “I am looking forward to meeting many new organisations that are genuinely driven by climate action and learning about the many initiatives, successes but also lessons learned of the industry.”

Learn more and register for Finextra's annual Sustainable Finance Live conference, that will bring together industry experts to examine strategies to build a sustainable city on 10 October 2023.