Investment banking leaders from Deutsche Bank discuss crucial ESG topics that needs focus right now

What are the three things a company can do to make the transition work? Jenn-Hui Tan, Global Head of Stewardship and Sustainable Investing from Fidelity is Trisha Taneja's (Deutsche Bank’s Global Head of ESG for Capital Markets & Advisory) guest in this podcast.

The role of the Chief Sustainability Officer is a newly emerged strategic function that focuses on operationalizing external feedback from investors, customers and stakeholders for commercial success. It is usually a cross functional effort, cascading targets across the various functions of an organization.

In this podcast, Trisha Taneja, Deutsche Bank’s Global Head of ESG for Capital Markets & Advisory, speaks to Ezgi Barcenas, AB Inbev’s Chief Sustainability Officer, about the role of the Chief Sustainability Officer in a corporation. Listen in to find out more about the remit of a CSO, how the role can leverage ESG to enable a corporate’s growth strategy and how AB Inbev believes a strong sustainability agenda and supply chain security and resilience is vital for its future.

Claire Coustar, global head of ESG FIC, Deutsche Bank hosts a lively podcast discussion to explore the principles and concepts around the  Circular Economy. Claire speaks to Jan Dzulko CEO of Everphone and Jagabanta Nigthoujam, principle at Rocky Mountain Institute India on how to support the Circular Economy and accelerate energy security and independence from fossil fuels.

James Brand, Head of European Utility Research discusses with Debbie Jones, Global Head of ESG Company Research the ambitious targets set by Germany's coalition government, arguably Europe's most ambitious decarbonisation targets. The targets aims to transform Germany’s power market, reaching 80% renewable generation by 2030 while closing its remaining nuclear plants and phasing out coal. It could put Germany at the forefront of the energy transition.

What we discuss

• The German government presented its official coalition agreement late last year, which was ambitious across a range of areas. What is it targeting for the utility sector?
• What needs to happen for the government’s targets to be achieved?
• New gas-fired generation is needed - why it is not possible to meet demand solely through renewables?
• What does this mean for prices – in the near-term power & gas prices have been very high? Make this its own bullet.
• Hydrogen has played an important role in the coalition plans – could this be used at some point instead of natural gas?

Climate risks have real and financial impacts on human health, asset values, capital investment, productivity, output and insurance. Even in the preferred scenario where we meet our global climate goals we face a different set of climate risks known as transition risks. These may include a rapid decarbonisation of our energy supply, new policy and legal mandates, investment in climate solutions, adaptation and resilience planning and behavioral changes.

In this podcast, Trisha Taneja, Deutsche Bank's Global Head of ESG for Capital Markets and Advisory, speaks to Helena Walsh, Managing Partner at climate and sustainability consulting firm Agendi, about what climate risk involves and its impact on capital allocation. Listen in to find out more about the best way for corporates to assess climate risk, why it is so important, what the challenges are and steps corporates can take to mitigate climate risk.

The UN Climate Change Conference COP26 came to an end with nearly 200 countries agreeing to the Glasgow Climate Pact, along with a flurry of commitments and announcements from governments, companies, banks, NGOs and other organisations.

Henrik Johnsson, Co-Head of European Banking and Capital Markets, Claire Coustar, Global Head of ESG for our Fixed Income business, and Trisha Taneja, Head of ESG Advisory for our Origination and Advisory business, were among a number of delegates in Glasgow, talking to clients, development banks and other partners and stakeholders about green topics and how we can help speed up the pace of change – for instance by helping clients reduce their carbon emissions or by funding green projects such as solar and wind energy and energy-efficient real estate

In this podcast just released, Johnsson, Coustar and Taneja share their thoughts on how COP26 will impact the financial markets and the bank’s investment banking clients. Listen in to find out more about the role of banks in combatting climate change, the agreement on carbon market regulations, the 130 trillion US dollars figure announced by the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (which Deutsche Bank is a member of), the EU and China’s agreement on a common green taxonomy, the initiatives announced around mobilising capital for clean tech and developing countries, the UK’s introduction of mandatory climate disclosures and what to look out for in the year ahead.