NIB to discuss environmental financing at Almedalen Week

Almedalen Week in Visby, Sweden

On Monday 3 July, you are welcome to attend a panel debate on the need for a green transition and ways to finance it. The debate is part of Sweden’s Almedalen Week, and it has been arranged in cooperation with the Nordic Council of Ministers and the Swedish think tank Global Utmaning in the town of Visby on the Swedish island of Gotland.

Almedalen Week in Visby is Sweden’s largest participatory political forum. During the first week of July, this event provides opportunities to everyone who wants to debate.

What is the colour of money?
The Nordic Investment Bank is participating to discuss what the next steps in green financing are. The need for funding to limit global warming is huge, but financial markets are slow to respond. Green bonds, for example, represent only a small proportion of global investors’ portfolios.

What needs to be done in order to change the situation? What are the roles of public and private sectors in financing the green transition? In our debate, you will hear top experts who can contribute different perspectives to these crucial issues related to our common future.

Baltic Sea protection
At NIB, our vision is for a prosperous and sustainable Nordic–Baltic region. We work towards that vision by providing complementary long-term financing to projects that improve competitiveness and the environment. We see green bonds as a key instrument to raise the funds needed for environmental projects.

Since 2011, we have been issuing NIB Environmental Bonds and using the proceeds to finance environmental projects, such as Stockholm’s Future Wastewater Treatment project at Henriksdal. The new membrane technology used there will result in 40% lower discharges of phosphorus and 33% lower discharges of nitrogen into the Baltic Sea. The plant will also remove all particles larger than 0.04 micrometres, i.e. all microplastics, from the wastewater.

We look forward to the discussion together with our panellists, who are:
Klas Eklund, Senior Economist, Sustainability, SEB
Magnus Billing, CEO, Alecta, member of the EU High Level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance
Thomas Wrangdahl, Head of Lending, NIB
Connie Hedegaard, Chairwoman, Concito, former European Commissioner for Climate Action
Mats Andersson, Special Investigator into green bonds on behalf of the Ministry of Finance
Sharon Jåma, Moderator

If you are in Visby on Monday 3 July, you are most welcome to take part in the debate, 11:00–11:45 am at Tavernatältet, Strandvägen 4.