Head of Sustainable Finance Solutions for Nedbank CIB, Arvana Singh, is at COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt discussing Nedbank’s commitment to the global climate convention.
Excerpts from the interview with Arvana Singh
Arvana Singh on why Nedbank is on the ground at COP27
Mitigation, adaptation, finance and collaboration are the key overarching themes of COP27 this year. Being at the forefront of sustainability and as a leading global sustainable finance innovator, it was important for us to stay plugged into the activities here, to participate in this and to continue to form partnerships and look for new opportunities to unlock.
On impressions of COP27
Given the attendance from a significant number of global leaders, as well as the energy that we are currently witnessing across the pavilion, as well as a jam-packed agenda around elements such as just transition, ocean economy, also elements of biodiversity coming up into the agenda. It certainly is a COP that covers a vast amount in terms of climate change objectives, and there is a massive amount of energy and enthusiasm and participation around it for the need to cement political will.
On the need to cement political will with implementation
We are all quite aware of the race that we are faced with, given the severity and intensity of various disasters that we are witnessing around the globe and the time for action is now – we really have got to come together to implement. If you look at the fact that there are some deals that are currently being negotiated on the sidelines on the first and second day of COP, then it really does indicate that we are on the route to create more deals during this COP. Hopefully, it will be a successful one.
On sustainable finance being at the core of Nedbank
Sustainable finance is at the core of Nedbank. This ethos can be witnessed across our operations, our mainstream financing activities, as well as through some of our CSI activities we also investigate. I think if you look at sustainable finance, it really plays at the mainstream part of our corporate investment bank. There are a number of examples that we can point to, which effectively demonstrate our ability to unpack, impact the investment space. We’ve recently concluded a $350 million sustainability linked loan in the international capital markets, which has been well supported by our lender group. And as part of the package we are committed to reduce scope one and scope two emissions across our operations.
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