Participation of the PABSEC International Secretariat to the webinar on Sustainable and Resilient Finance, OECD, 29 September 2020
On 29 September 2020, the PABSEC Deputy Secretary General Mr. Miltiadis Makrygiannis attended a webinar on Sustainable and Resilient Finance, titled “Leveraging ESG (environmental, social and governance) practices for Long-term value”, organized by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The event brought together senior representatives from government, business, academia and the media, discussing what governments and businesses can and should be doing to drive more sustainable and resilient outcomes in finance, for the COVID-19 recovery and beyond.
Mr. Stefan Flückiger, Deputy State Secretary and Head of the Department Planning & Strategy, State Secretariat for International Finance, Switzerland, and Mr. Angel Gurría, OECD Secretary-General, made the opening remarks and Mr. Greg Medcraft, OECD Director for Financial and Enterprise Affairs, presented the current situation and the main findings of the OECD analysis.
Special attention was paid to the 2020 edition of the OECD Business and Finance Outlook which focuses on sustainable and resilient finance, in particular the environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors that are rapidly becoming a part of mainstream finance. It evaluates current ESG practices and identifies priorities and actions to better align investments with sustainable, long-term value – especially the need for more consistent, comparable, and available data on ESG performance.
The COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted the urgent need to consider resilience in finance, both in the financial system itself and in the role played by capital and investors in making economic and social systems more dynamic and able to withstand external shocks.