Agenda 2025
*Almost all speeches will be in German
9:00 – 9:10 am
Opening Remarks
Michael Bommer, Senior Consultant Law & Policy, Head of Sustainability, BAI e.V.
9:10 – 9:40 am
Keynote: Sustainability Reporting in Transition – Costs and Benefits of Current Regulation from an Investor Perspective
- How the CSRD has reshaped the information landscape for investors: transitioning from voluntary sustainability reports to audited, standardised data.
- How stakeholders and investors actually use the information: the extent to which sustainability disclosures are read and which data points receive the most attention.
- The current regulatory debate (“Omnibus”) and its implications: fewer companies subject to reporting requirements and reduced data points — what does this mean for transparency and comparability?
Prof Dr Maximilian Müller, University of Cologne
9:40 – 10:10 am
Keynote: Current developments in sustainability reporting and related assurance
- Looking back: What did sustainability reporting and its assurance look like in 2024?
- Looking at the present: What is the current state of sustainability reporting and its assurance, and what uncertainties remain?
- Looking ahead: What comes next for sustainability reporting and its assurance?
Dr Christina Stappert, Technical Principal Financial & Sustainability Reporting, Institut der Wirtschaftsprüfer in Deutschland e.V. (IDW)
10:10 – 10:55 am
Panel: ESG Regulation and ESG Reporting
- SFDR (2.0) and PAI Statements
- CSRD / ESRS, including the Omnibus amendments
- Article 8 Taxonomy Delegated Act, including the latest draft
- EET & BAI ESG Template
Dr. Jürgen Göck, Head of Sustainability in Investments, ALH Group
Cornelia Heerwagen, In-house Counsel, HUK-COBURG Asset Management GmbH
Marius Huthmacher, ESG-Manager, BarmeniaGothaer Asset Management AG
Moderated by: Jegor Tokarevich CEO, Substance Over Form (SOF)
10:55 – 11:30 am
Coffee Break
11:30 – 11:55 am
The European Sustainable Finance Landscape – Between (Evolving?) Regulation and Reality
- A realistic perspective on the current state of ESG in alternative investing
- Practical views on the working with the current regulation
- current positions and practices of key stakeholders towards sustainability (deflated hype or common sense)
Marc Göbbels, Partner, ESG in Deals, PwC Germany
Michael Horvath, Partner, Regulatory Advisory, PwC Luxembourg
11:55 am – 12:20 pm
From Carbon to Natural Capital: Scaling Climate & Nature Impact through Real Assets
- From Carbon to Natural Capital: Climate and nature risks are now financial risks – and real assets are the bridge from targets to tangible outcomes.
- Market Shift: As climate and nature become mainstream, investors are moving from pledges to performance
- Next Frontier: Integrating climate and nature through real assets enables diversified impact, long-term resilience, and a new generation of investable sustainability strategies.
Raphaela Schmid, Head of ESG & Sustainability, SUSI Partners
12:20 – 1:30 pm
Lunch
1:30 – 2:00 pm
Keynote: Regulatory update on Sustainable Finance
- Update on regulatory initiatives of the European Commission in the area of sustainable finance, incl. Omnibus
- EU Taxonomy Disclosure Delegated Act and review of EU Taxonomy criteria in the Climate and Environmental Delegated Acts
- Context and overview key changes of the SFDR proposal
- Outlook Sustainable Finance
Susanne Schenker, Policy Officer Sustainable Finance, Directorate General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union, European Commission
2:00 – 2:25 pm
SFDR after Five Years: Operational Challenges and Future Outlook
- Where does SFDR implementation stall in practice?
- Which levers prove effective?
- ESMA guidelines and the link to the newly proposed SFDR product categories
Katharina Drexler, Sustainability Officer, Helaba Invest
Charlotte Joosten, Manager Sustainable Finance, Deloitte
2:25 – 3:10 pm
Panel: Impact Investing & Private Markets
Manuel Geiger, Associate - Sustainable Advisory and Business, BNP Paribas
Katharina Hammer, Attorney-at-Law | Sustainability Reporting in Finance, POELLATH
Constantin Krause, Director, EY Consulting
Hannes Tausend, Head of ESG, KGAL
Moderated by: Susanne Bregy, Managing Director, Bundesinitiative Impact Investing (BIII)
3:10 – 3:35 pm
Value Creation in Impact Investing
- To set the scene for the value creation discussion, the presentation will look at the main elements of impact investing and its relationship to fiduciary duties of financial investors, to be followed by the presentation of Schroders Impact Research.
- Schroders Impact Research: Schroders launched a research series addressing the elephant in the room - “can impact be a driver of financial performance?”. The series started off from listed equities and expanded across additional asset classes.
- Financial & Impact Performance Relationship: Assessing impact universes approved through Schroders’ proprietary B.Impact Framework™, built based on BlueOrchards’ 25 years’ experience, we have found listed equity impact portfolios consistently outperformed benchmarks with higher returns, alpha, and resilience—driven by companies with higher impact materiality that translate positive impact into excess returns through efficiency and growth.
- Bottom line: Impact investing can deliver strong impact performance without sacrificing financial returns; success depends on long-term horizons and a triple-lens approach, though results are subject to data, selection, and market limitations.
Heike Schmitz, Partner, Lawyer, Herbert Smith Freehills LLP
Nadina Stodiek, Co-Head of Impact Management, Schroders/BlueOrchard
3:35 – 4:05 pm
Coffee Break
4:05 – 4:30 pm
Financing the Energy Transition
Daniel Lühmann, Partner, Simmons & Simmons
Dr Thorsten Volz, Partner, Simmons & Simmons
Melanie Wiese, Management, e-KommUnity
4:30 – 4:55 pm
Green Hydrogen
Björn Jotzo, Investment Manager, Luxcara
Regina Reck, Senior Research Consultant, Forschungsstelle für Energiewirtschaft e. V.
Tapio Schmidt-Achert, Senior Research Consultant, Forschungsstelle für Energiewirtschaft e. V.
4:55 – 5:00 pm
Closing Remarks
From 5:00 pm onwards