Singapore, 6 June 2023 (Tuesday) – The inaugural International Conference on ESG and Climate Governance, bringing together academic experts, practitioners and board directors, will take place at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore, between 26 and 28 June 2023.
The conference is a global collaboration between the Centre for Climate Engagement and Climate Governance Initiative, based at Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge and Singapore Management University (SMU)’s Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics, with support from the Singapore Green Finance Centre (SGFC).
It brings together academic experts, practitioners, and board directors from six continents, across disciplines and industry sectors to address theoretical and practical challenges to climate action across the world by drawing on academic expertise to develop impactful solutions which can be put to practice.
Conference sessions will include keynotes from Loh Boon Chye, CEO of the Singapore Exchange (SGX) and Professor Winston Chow, Associate Professor of Urban Climate and Lee Kong Chian Research Fellow at SMU on topics spanning include corporate governance, leadership, green finance, regulatory frameworks, corporate law and the challenges and obstacles to climate action in the boardroom.
Both the Centre for Climate Engagement and Sim Kee Boon Institute specialise in bridging the academic and practitioner communities in their respective disciplines. In doing so, the Centre for Climate Engagement accelerates climate leadership on corporate boards, with a particular focus on corporate governance and corporate law. It reaches a wide audience of non-executive board directors at a global level through its coordination of the Climate Governance Initiative, an international network of board directors committed to making climate a boardroom priority. SMU’s Sim Kee Boon Institute, on the other hand, conducts applied financial economic research driven by industry and societal needs through multidisciplinary collaborations involving research talent from around the world as well as industry and public-sector partners. The Institute will be hosting this conference over three days at Marina Bay Sands.
“We are incredibly excited to collaborate with Singapore Management University on the inaugural International Conference on ESG and Climate Governance. We believe that using a multi-disciplinary approach will help advance the global dialogue on the critical issue of driving corporate climate action,” said Emily Farnworth, Director, Centre for Climate Engagement, Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge and Head of Secretariat, Climate Governance Initiative.
Professor Dave Fernandez, Director of Singapore Management University’s Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics and Co-Director of the Singapore Green Finance Centre, who championed the idea of holding a global academic conference in Singapore to forward the corporate climate governance agenda, said: “Sustainability is a relatively new topic which is gaining traction as a result of the climate crisis. This topic is not going to go away, and we must as a society keep up with the changing times. This is why we have made Sustainable Finance one of the core areas of focus at our institute.”
He continues: “We look forward to hosting this inaugural International Conference on ESG and Climate Governance which gives leading academics, non-executive directors and practitioners from sustainability and related fields a platform to discuss new ideas and learn from one another.”
A side-event discussing the key actions from the conference will follow the invitation-only conference, hosted by Climate Governance Singapore, for which SMU is a knowledge partner. This livestreamed session, which will be open to the public, will see academics and practitioners discussing key takeaways for board directors driving climate action. The livestream will take place at 15:30-17:00 SGT on 28 June 2023. Registration for this webinar is available now by clicking here.
The principal outcomes from the conference will be shared with the Climate Governance Initiative’s global network, providing insight into the key discussion points and questions to directors can take to the boardroom.