Within the framework of the International Plastic Exhibition ‘ARGENPLAS 2024’, the Argentine Petrochemical Institute (IPA) organized the conference ‘Argentine petrochemistry: towards sustainable development’, an event that served to update, exchange knowledge and ‘ networking’ between professionals linked to the petrochemical industry in Argentina and the region.
During the day, conferences, discussion panels and technical presentations were held by prominent national and international experts on current topics such as technological innovation, environmental sustainability, energy efficiency, industrial safety and current regulations, among others.
In the panel ‘Financing of Sustainable Projects’ participated Gonzalo Martínez CereijoHead of CIB Country Coverage & Sustainability of BBVA Argentina; next to Matias Kellyfounder of Summation Civil Association; Virginia RomeroAcademic Director of The Core; and German LonguetCorporate Sales of Comafi Bank. It was moderated by Ariel StolarPetrochemical Commercial Manager of Pampa Energy.
When starting the panel, Matias Kelly He pointed out that “one of the ways to scale good ideas is through the triple impact economy or economy that integrates social impact into the business. Since the more that company develops, the more environmental and social impact it generates.”
Regarding the possibility of talking about sustainable financing, Virginia Romero He pointed out that “in an industry forum talking about sustainable development and finance a few years ago did not happen” and he welcomed participating in a panel with people from different businesses and with different perspectives.
During his presentation, Gonzalo Martínez Cereijo, from BBVA, pointed out that “The bank plans to mobilize 300 billion euros by 2025 in sustainability businesses. This objective was growing since the bank’s mission is to help different industries transition – such as oil, gas, cars, cement – and clearly the petrochemical industry is within BBVA’s objectives.”
During 2023, BBVA mobilized 116,000 million pesos in sustainable financing in Argentina, he explained. The goal for 2024 is to reach 300,000 million pesos.” And he gave as an example that among the most important investments is BBVA’s performance as underwriter of the first green bond of Petrochemical Comodoro Rivadavia (PCR) in Argentina.
Regarding the mobilization of capital for sustainable financing for the fight against climate change, he expressed that “BBVA has the possibility of classifying all transactional products as sustainable. As transactional products we refer to letters of credit, loans in pesos, guarantees, export pre-financing.”
To end German Longuet He indicated that industries even up to Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) must be efficient in managing their resources since that attracts investors.
