Steve at the European Loan Markets Conference
Arketa Institute Co-Founder Steve Rocco on stage at the Loan Market Association (LMA) European Loan Markets Conference in Paris, France, on October 23rd, 2024.
In October 2024, Steve joined Eva Boutillier, Managing Director of CVC Credit; Lucie Campos Caresmel of Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB); and Valérie Guillaumin from the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) for a discussion about ESG. The panel was held as a part of the Loan Market Association’s European Loan Markets Conference in Paris, France.
As Steve put it on Linkedin:
My contribution to the panel was explaining that science is telling us that we are going in the wrong direction according to the planetary boundaries framework from the Stockholm Resilience Centre. Our overuse of natural resources is clearly documented and it is our economic model which is to blame.
I shifted to sustainable finance, which while a positive step, is not working fast enough or profoundly enough to change our current trajectory. That sustainable investing is little different that traditional investing is one of the conclusions of some recent research from the London School of Economics' Alex Edmans [and colleagues]: “The … differences between traditional and sustainable investors are smaller than commonly believed.”
Why does it appear that current policies are not working? The problem is not finance, which works as designed. It is about the underlying neo-classical economics and its inability to deal with environment and social problems (externalities). This is best seen by comparing classical and ecological economics. [This video from Dan O’Neill] explains it well.
The Loan Market Association has over 880 members and represents “an expanding and diverse range of participants in international capital markets, including institutional investors, private and public sector issuers, banks, non-banks, technology platforms, and market infrastructure providers across the UK, US, EMEA, and Africa.”