Kurt Vogt, Managing Director at HPL, participated as a panelist in the workshop on Promoting Net Zero and Carbon Neutral Commitments for the Asia-Pacific region, organized by USAID and APEC. The series of conferences were held in Honolulu, Hawaii where experts from different sectors of the economy presented and discussed the topic of decarbonization. Kurt discussed barriers and enablers to implementing carbon reduction projects from a sustainable financing perspective.

Kurt Vogt, Managing Director at HPL, participated as a panelist in the second edition of the Global Center on Adaptation's Masterclass on Mainstreaming Climate Resilience into Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) in Africa. The event was held in a hybrid format in Accra, Ghana. Kurt conducted a masterclass on thematic instruments and sustainable finance in which he discussed the role of the market and the situation in Africa for the public and private sector.

HPL Consultants, María Teresa Grez, Yvonne Vogt, and Valeria Cantú, co-authored a report alongside the Inter-American Development Bank regarding the issuance of green bonds in the water and sanitation sector in Colombia. The report presents the opportunities of issuing green bonds within the water and sanitation sector by highlighting the consultancy that HPL led with two public water companies in Colombia in their preparation of a Green Financing Framework.

Kurt Vogt, Managing Director at HPL, participated as panelist in the Green Summit Mexico 2022, the first Latin America-based event of the Global Green Guide Initiative. Kurt Vogt was part of the second panel "The role of GCs when it comes to sustainable practice and strategy", where he exposed the essential elements a business needs to integrate ESG as well as the importance of the General Counsels in order to do so. Kurt was joined by some of the most high-profile experts in various sectors of the Mexican economy.

Daniela Canevaro, Associate at HPL, participated as a panelist at the VI Latin American Sanitation Conference held in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Moderated by Maria Eduarda Gouvêa Berto, IDB Water and Sanitation Specialist, Daniela presented the "Practical Guide to Innovative Financial Instruments for the Water and Sanitation Sector in Latin America and the Caribbean" prepared by HPL and IDB. In particular, she spoke about the role of thematic bonds and sustainability-linked bonds in the water and sanitation sector.

Kurt Vogt, Managing Director at HPL moderated a panel session entitled "DFIs: Underpinning ESG Markets Region-Wide" at the Latin American ESG Markets Summit hosted by New Energy Events. Gathering lessons learned from leading DFIs in the region from panelists Maria Netto, Chief, Financial Institutions and Markets, New Development Bank; Carole Sanz-Paris, Head of Debt Capital Markets, IDB Invest; Jesús Alan Elizondo Flores, Director General, Fideicomisos Instituidos en Relación con la Agricultura (FIRA); and Manuel Valdez, Head of DCM Funding and Derivatives, CAF; the session explored initiatives underway and new approaches to unlock ESG-linked capital.

In March 2022, Kurt Vogt and one of HPL's Consultants delivered an in-person workshop and Q&A session at the Panamanian Stock Exchange (Latinex Holdings) regarding the step by step process to issue thematic bonds for public sector issuers in Panama. The workshop was moderated by Christian Schneider, Senior Financial Markets Specialist at IDB. Patricio Sepúlveda, from Chile's Ministry of Finance, Lizeth Camila Erazo, from Colombia's Ministry of Finance, Juan Carlos Pacheco, CFO at Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE), and María Paola Carvajal from Bancoldex participated sharing their experience as thematic bond issuers in LAC.

In collaboration with the Water & Sanitation team of the Inter-American Development Bank, HPL drafted a practical guidance document on innovative financing instruments and mechanisms that water and sanitation companies in LAC could use as an alternative or complement to their traditional financing sources. The Guide delves into these instruments' added value, explains their concept and implementation process, and offers practical recommendations on their structuring, as well as representative case studies that exemplify their application by other entities in the sector in LAC and globally.

Yvonne Vogt, Consultant at HPL participated as a guest lecturer in a three-day course organized by the International Centre for Hydropower (ICH) and the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) on risk management and financial sustainability in the electricity sector. Yvonne's lecture focused on structuring Sustainability-Linked Bonds for issuers in the electricity sector, providing practical guidelines on how to select relevant Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and ambitious Sustainability Performance Targets (SPTs). At the end of the class, participants were provided a case study to develop their own KPIs and SPTs, which were presented during an interactive group session.

HPL was hired by the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) to design and deliver a workshop on sustainable finance for ESAN Graduate School of Business (Lima, Peru), within the project financed by the Government of the United Kingdom, through its UK PACT program in Peru. The workshop covered topics such as the global and regional climate finance context, sustainable debt instruments, gender equity and social inclusion matters in project formulation, gender lens finance and ESG integration in the corporate strategy. Kurt Vogt, HPL's Managing Director, Isabel Montojo, Consultant at HPL, and Cristina L. Mayher, Gender Equity and Social Inclusion Expert delivered a one hour and fifty minute workshop addressed to CEOs and CFOs from a wide range of sectors in Peru. Professor Marco Vinelli, Director of the Master in Agribusiness Administration at ESAN and Alberto Dante Maurer Fossa GGGI's Country Representative in Peru participated as co-hosts and moderators during the event.

Kurt Vogt, Managing Director at HPL, participated as an expert panelist alongside Alberto Gómez-Obregón, Managing Partner, at CO Capital; Daniela Calleja, Head of New Issuers and Entrepreneurs at BIVA; and Cristian Jaramillo, Sustainability & Risk (ESG) Senior Manager at PWC, in a webinar hosted by PYMO, a Mexican startup dedicated to connecting companies with the best NGOs in Mexico. In this session, Kurt discussed the impact of ESG and how it should be incorporated within company's mandates.

HPL's Consultant, Yvonne Vogt, participated as an expert in a Webinar hosted by IDB Invest and ANBIMA on the main steps to structure thematic bonds and sharing experiences on sustainability in the brazilian capital markets. The experts in the panel included Alexandre da Rosa, Chief Strategy Officer at IDB Invest, Carlos Takahashi, Director at ANBIMA, Sergio Gusmão, President at Development BAnk of Minas Gerais (BDMG), Fabiana Silva, Financial Institutions at Banco ABC Brazil, and Luiz Maia, Senior Consultant at Brookfield Asset Management. The event was moderated by Gabriel Azevedo, Chief Social, Environmental and Governance Division at IDB Invest and Marcia Groszman Faria, Lead Investment Officer for Brazilian Financial Institutions at IDB Invest.

HPL´s Managing Director, Kurt Vogt, moderated a webinar hosted by HSBC Mexico on Gender Lens Finance in Latin America. The panel of experts included Eusebio Garre, Head of Funding at IDB Invest, Anoushka Mehta, Head of Gender Lens Finance at HSBC, and Leticia Robles DeLas Fuentes Institutional Relations and Business Development Director at Konfio. The session was hosted by Aidee Olmos, Head of Corporate Sustainability at HSBC Mexico.

Alongside IDB Invest, HPL co-authored a Thematic Bonds Guide, which provides a roadmap for banks and companies in Latin America and the Caribbean looking to integrate ESG investing into their business strategies. The report outlines the five key steps companies can undertake for structuring thematic bonds. The guide is avaialble for download in English, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Isabel Montojo, Consultant, at HPL hosted and moderated a capacity building session for the corporate sector in Panama on universal sustainability principles for corporates and investors: UN Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), and UN Global Compact.

Isabel Montojo, Consultant at HPL, hosted and moderated a capacity building session for the corporate sector in Panama on ESG disclosure standards: Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).

HPL, together with Latinex: Bolsa Latinoamericana de Valores (Panama's Stock Exchange), IDB Invest and UN Global Compact Panamá (Sumarse) organized a capacity building session on the business case for sustainability addressed to the corporate sector in Panamá.

Alongside IDB Invest, HPL developed a Guide for Voluntary Reporting and Disclosure of ESG Factors for Latinex: Bolsa Latinoamericana de Valores (Panama's Stock Exchange). The objective of this project was to influence the corporate sector of the country to implement sustainability practices; to inform investor decision making; and create a benchmark that could overtime be adopted by the regulator as national best practice. The guide is avaialble for download in English, and Spanish.

This blog post, co-authored by Isabel Montojo, Associate at HPL; Olga Cantillo, CEO Bolsa de Valores de Panama; and Susana Del Granado, Environmental and Social Officer IDB Invest, explores the role of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) disclosure in the emerging markets.

Biodiversity is a key element to our natural world and the increased agitation of ecosystems in the last decade has posed a significant threat on natural areas and their vast contributions. While most conservation efforts have been funded solely by philanthropic efforts and grants in the past, there has been an emergence of innovative conservation finance instruments. Conservation finance is an emerging field that can unlock private capital and help to continuously scale conservation projects in ways that grants and donations cannot. In this thought leadership, we discuss examples of conservation finance instruments, the different stakeholders involved, and the common themes we have observed in this space.

The event was held in Ciudad de México on April 12th of 2018 and was organized by the British Embassy and MEXICO2.

HPL’s Managing Director, Kurt Vogt, moderated the panel “Challenges to Sustainable Finance”.

(Image Source: British Embassy and MEXICO2)

Televisa interviewed Kurt Vogt in April of 2018 on the goal of sustainable finance and its relationship to climate change.

(Image Source: Televisa)