IMF Conference

Day 1: High-level Seminar on Climate Issues
Tuesday, December 12, 2023

Welcome Remarks

• Eteri Kvintradze, Director, IMF Capacity Development Office in Thailand (CDOT)
• David Cowen, IMF South Asia Regional Training and Technical Assistance Center (SARTTAC)

Session 1: Transition Challenges and Scaling Up Climate Financing

This session will open with a presentation on the state of climate finance for Asian countries in the context of their long-term financing requirements. These countries have elevated investment needs, even before addressing climate adaptation and mitigation, while debt levels are already high for some. Climate finance can play a meaningful part in meeting this challenge.

Moderator: Krishna Srinivasan, Director, Asia and Pacific Department, IMF

Panelists:

• Cheng Hoon Lim, Deputy Director, Statistics Department, IMF
• Sang-hyup Kim, Chairperson of the Presidential Commission on Carbon Neutrality and Green Growth
• Nandalal Weerasinghe,Governor, Central Bank Sri Lanka
• Maha Prasad Adhikari, Governor, Nepal Rastra Bank
• Ronadol Numnonda, Deputy Governor, Financial Institutions Stability, Bank of Thailand

Session 2: Climate Risks and Financial Stability: What Can Central Banks Do? Discussion with Asian Central Bank Deputy Governors

This session will open with a keynote speech followed with a moderated discussion on the roles and practices of central banks in mitigating climate risks and ensuring financial stability. The session will enable experience sharing on central banks’ evolving institutional frameworks for addressing opportunities and challenges of climate risks and potential financing needs. This session will encourage peer-to-peer exchange of central bank experiences.

Moderator: Tobias Adrian, Director, Monetary and Capital Markets Department, IMF

Panelists:

• Chuchi G. Fonacier, Deputy Governor, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas
• Nurun Nahar, Deputy Governor, Bangladesh Bank
• Rath Sovannorak, Deputy Governor, National Bank of Cambodia
• Rashidah Sabtu, Deputy Managing Director, Brunei Darussalam Central Bank
• Ahmed Imad, Deputy Governor, Maldives Monetary Authority

Session 3: Getting the most from official sector climate finance and multilateral (or cross-country) insurance schemes

This session will kick off a dialogue on the potential role of climate finance and insurance for Asian countries in the context of climate adaptation and mitigation. In particular, it will explore how Asian countries can benefit from official-sector and multilateral initiatives: the IMF’s Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST) and existing regional initiatives. The session will also cover the Global Shield (GS) against climate risks initiative launched by the G7 countries and the Vulnerable 20 Group (V20) at the Climate Change Conference (COP27) in November 2022. The GS will increase financial protection by enhancing pre-arranged finance, insurance, and social-protection measures against disasters.

Moderator: Ananthakrishnan Prasad, Advisor and Unit Chief Monetary and Capital Markets Department, IMF

Panelists:

• Chuchi G. Fonacier, Deputy Governor, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas
• Nurun Nahar, Deputy Governor, Bangladesh Bank
• Nilesh Prakash, Adviser, V20 Secretariat
• Subathirai Sivakumaran, Chief of Section, Macroeconomic Policy and Financing for Development Division, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP)

Session 4: Market-based climate finance and improving debt resilience to shocks

This session will provide an overview of the universe of climate finance, with an emphasis on market-based instruments such as green, blue, and sustainability-linked bonds, state-contingent debt instruments that include typhoon and other natural disaster clauses, as well as blended finance. It will examine the outlook for the growth of and access to these instruments and how Asian countries can add them to their financing toolkit.

Moderator: Charles Cohen, Advisor, Monetary and Capital Markets Department, IMF

Panelists:

• Inkoo Kim, Director General, Financial Stability Department, Bank of Korea
• Saurav Sinha, Executive Director, Reserve Bank of India
• Tayakorn Jitrakuldhacha, Director, Bond Department, Securities and Exchange Commission of Thailand
• Poonsit Wongthawatchai, Executive Vice President of the Environmental, Social, and Governance Division, Bank of Ayudhya Public Company Limited
• Ananthakrishnan Prasad, Advisor and Unit Chief Monetary and Capital Markets Department, IMF

Day 2: Technical Learning
Wednesday, December 13, 2023

Session 5: Climate Risk Analysis 101 for financial stability policy making

This session will lay out approaches to climate risk analysis, based on the IMF framework for climate risk analysis in the Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP). The seminar will explain the approach to standard risk analysis in FSAPs and how this has been adjusted and augmented to incorporate climate risks, both physical and transition risk. Data needs and methodological challenges in climate risk analysis will also be discussed. The session will also open a discussion among the participant-countries on approaches and tools for climate risk analysis that can be applied in the daily work of financial stability policy makers.

Moderator: Ivo Krznar, Deputy Division Chief, Monetary and Capital Markets Department, IMF

Panelists:

• Mariyam Najeela, Senior Executive Director, Financial Stability, Maldives Monetary Authority
• Watudura, Director, Macroprudential Surveillance Department, Central Bank of Sri Lanka
• Harendra Kumar Behera, Director, Department of Economic Policy and Research, Reserve Bank of India
• MD Ala Uddin, Director, Financial Stability Department, Bangladesh Bank

Session 6: Addressing climate risks in prudential supervision and regulation – views from the region

The recognition that climate-related financial risks can be a threat to financial stability is prompting supervisors to review their regulatory and supervisory frameworks to ensure that these risks are appropriately tackled. The Basel Committee for Banking Supervision and the International Sustainability Standards Board have issued new standards and guidance in this area. This session will discuss the international experience in implementing these international benchmarks (e.g., the Principles for Effective Management and Supervision of Climate-related Financial Risks). This session will also open a discussion among the participant-countries on their regulatory and supervisory approaches to climate-related risks, challenges they face, and ways to address them.

Moderator: Nitin Jain, Financial Sector Supervision and Regulation Advisor, SARTTAC

Panelists:

• Rukshana Jayatillake, Director, Bank Supervision Department, Central Bank of Sri Lanka
• Youraden Seng, Director, Banking Supervision II, National Bank of Cambodia
• Irman Robinson Pardede, Director, Macroprudential Policy Department, Bank Indonesia
• Shankar Chhetri, Senior Analyst, Financial Regulation and Supervision Department, Royal Monetary of Authority of Bhutan