The Impact Investing Conference held on Thursday at the Espace Namur in Luxembourg-Hamm, organised by the Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry (ALFI), in association with LuxFLAG and the European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP), addressed the issue of climate finance.

Moderated by Martin Bichler, Ambassador at large for climate change at Luxembourg's Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the panel included Martin Berg, Investor Officer at the EIB, Henrik Malmsten, founder of Durable Vision Invest in Stockholm, Jacco Minnaar, Director Energy & Culture at Tridos Investment Management in The Netherlands, and Robert Scharfe, CEO at the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.

Henrik Malmsten said that we all believe in the future. He referred back to 1990 and the bubble that burst. Today we see similar dilemnas. He also talked about using resources more efficiently.

Martin Berg said that we should not forget about long-term technological approaches.

Jacco Minnaar said that, like the Stone Age not stopping because of a lack of stones, the dependence on oil will not stop because of a lack of oil; instead, CleanTech will have a significant affect on how we get and use energy. He talked about the concern of low electricity prices in Europe, while in some emerging markets the implementation of sustainable energy projects bypasses these concerns.

Robert Scharfe talked about access to larger amounts of capital. There will be much more diversity, and the best of impact investing is still to come. In the future, everyone will have some part to play in the green environment. As the market is self-regulated today, this will change with regualtion coming. Due diligence is currently the responsibility of the investor. He called for much more stringent self-regualtion. He also talked about the enormous hype in green bonds since COP21 in Paris last year. He also mentioned the need to guide investors in the more transparent way possible.

In summary, impact investment is starting to become mainstream, with climate finance playing a leading role.

Photo by Geoff Thompson (L-R): Robert Scharfe, Jacco Minnaar, Martin Bichler, Martin Berg, Henrik Malmsten, Christian Hertz