PERE conference

Nancy Saich is a chartered civil engineer who specialised early in her career in transport projects and more specifically in ports and coastal work. 25 years ago, she became involved in the discussions in the maritime engineering industry on the challenges of incorporating climate change impacts into the design guidance for maritime projects. This was the beginning of her close interest in climate change. After 13 years of work as a consulting engineer, she joined the European Investment Bank in 1998. Nancy was an early founding member of the Bank’s Environmental Assessment Group, providing the Bank’s Project Teams with due diligence support on environmental and climate and was a founding member of the Bank’s Inter-Directorate Climate Working Group and Adaptation Group. Following her move to the Bank’s Environment, Climate and Social Office in 2011, Nancy has a specific role as EIB’s Chief Climate Change Expert, supporting all parts of the Bank on strategic climate issues. She has been responsible for leading the work on Paris Alignment with other MDBs, Climate Finance definitions and impact reporting, including the Carbon Footprint of the Bank’s Project portfolio. She also works on the definitions and impact reporting for the Bank’s Green Bonds – the EIB’s Climate Awareness Bonds, and works closely with other Finance Institutions on harmonised impact reporting and climate finance tracking. Most recently in Sustainable Finance, Nancy contributed to the EU High Level Expert Group (HLEG) on Sustainable Finance on proposals for a future EU Taxonomy framework, and she was a Member of the EU’s “TEG” - Technical Expert Group on Sustainable Finance, from 2018-2020, in the EU taxonomy working group. Since 2020 she has been a Rapporteur of the EU Platform for Sustainable Finance, leading Platform Subgroup 3 in its work on harmful and low impact activities. The Platform has just published its report on this topic: The Extended Environmental Taxonomy - Final Report on Taxonomy extension options supporting a sustainable transition – March 2022. Platform on Sustainable Finance’s report on environmental transition taxonomy (europa.eu) Nancy is also an active contributor to the G20 Sustainable Finance Working Group as an international observer (representing EIB) and is part of the International Platform on Sustainable Finance working group on Transition Finance.