Leadership Dialogue 3

Summary

The dialogue focused on the implications of environmental and climate risks for financial stability, fiscal space and development pathways. Participants emphasized that environmental degradation was increasingly material to macroeconomic outcomes and that coherent, system-wide measures were needed to steer public and private finance towards sustainable economies aligned with environmental and social objectives.

The discussion was moderated by Ms. Attiya Waris, United Nations Independent Expert on Foreign Debt and other Related International Financial Obligations and Professor at the University of Nairobi, who emphasized that financial reform must support resilience and equity and that countries require policy space to invest in prevention, adaptation and nature. Ms. Pia Bernadette Roman Tayag, Assistant Governor and Chief Sustainability Officer of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, highlighted the role of central banks and regulators in integrating climate and nature-related risks into supervision, disclosure and incentives, and in supporting the scaling-up of sustainable finance. Ms. Cristina Reis, Secretary of Carbon Markets at the Ministry of Finance, Brazil, highlighted how governments can develop sustainable finance measures such as science-based taxonomies to address strategic environmental and social objectives through structural transformation across high-impact sectors.

Guest speakers highlighted how sustainable finance frameworks, including taxonomies and credible standards, can help channel finance towards mitigation, adaptation and nature-positive outcomes while strengthening transparency and reducing greenwashing risks. They also emphasized the urgency of scaling up accessible and affordable finance for adaptation and resilience, including through international cooperation to lower the cost of capital. 51 UNEP/EA.7/21

Messages from the floor emphasized four priority areas. First, participants underscored integrating climate and nature-related risks into financial decision-making through improved data, metrics, disclosure and tools such as scenario analysis and stress testing. Second, participants emphasized clear, long-term policy signals to crowd in private capital and improve risk pricing. Third, they highlighted the need to scale finance for mitigation, adaptation and nature, including through blended finance and risk-sharing approaches, particularly for vulnerable contexts. Fourth, participants emphasized integrity, comparability and interoperability across frameworks to reduce greenwashing and support a just transition.

Overall, participants emphasized that addressing environmental degradation is integral to financial stability and sustainable development, and called for stronger coordination among finance ministries, central banks, regulators and line ministries, supported by international coherence and cooperation.

Speakers

Moderator: Attiya Waris

UN independent expert on foreign debt and international financial obligations

Attiya Waris is a distinguished law professor in Kenya, notable for being the second woman to achieve this title and the first from a religious, ethnic, and racial minority in the country. She stands as the only known Professor of Fiscal Law in Africa, contributing significantly to the intersection of finance and development, particularly in areas such as taxation, debt, and illicit financial flows.

Professor Waris has held several leadership positions, including Director of Research at her university and acting Deputy Principal of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, being the first woman to do so in both roles. Currently, she serves as the UN independent expert on foreign debt and international financial obligations related to human rights. She is also active in various organizations, including the International Tax Taskforce on Climate and Development and the O’Neill-Lancet Commission on Racism and Structural Discrimination.

Her expertise has garnered international recognition, with recent citations in speeches by notable figures, including Ireland's President Higgins and Kenya's Constitutional Court, as well as the Bahamian Minister of Foreign Affairs in discussions on international cooperation. Professor Waris is a founding member of several influential organizations focused on tax justice and fiscal studies in Africa.

Pia Bernadette Roman Tayag

Assistant Governor and Chief Sustainability Officer, Strategy, Innovation, and Sustainability, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)

Ms. Roman Tayag is the Assistant Governor, and Chief Sustainability Officer of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). She heads Strategy, Innovation, and Sustainability.
She has been with the BSP for over twenty years. Prior to her current role, she was Managing Director in charge of financial inclusion, consumer protection and financial education.
She also served as Chief of Staff of the Governor and as coordinator of the BSP Executive Offices.
For three years, while on secondment from the BSP, she served as the Director at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in New York where she headed the Office of the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development (UNSGSA) from 2020 - 2023. In this role, she led the team that supports the work of Her Majesty Queen Máxima of the Netherlands in her UN role.
Ms. Roman Tayag has been involved in various regional and international bodies. She chaired the ASEAN Working Committee on Financial Inclusion and was a member of the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) Task Force on Financial Inclusion, the Policy Advisory Group of the Innovations for Poverty Action Research Fund, the Better than Cash Alliance Editorial and Publications Committee, and the Smart Campaign Steering Committee. She also serves as Co-Chair of the SBFN Inclusive Sustainable Finance Working Group and as a member of the NGFS Task Force on Adaptation.
Ms. Roman Tayag graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from the University of the Philippines and a master’s degree in International Affairs focused on Economic Development from Columbia University. She is a Fellow in the Fletcher School Leadership Program for Financial Inclusion at Tufts University. She also completed various executive programs on leadership, sustainable finance and AI for strategic impact from the London School of Economics, Oxford University and Stanford University.

Cristina Reis

Extraordinary Secretary of Carbon Markets, Ministry of Finance of Brazil

Secretary of carbon markets at the Ministry of Finance, Brazil. Licensiated professor of Economics at the Federal University of ABC, master and doctorate degrees in Economics from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. She has several publications in the areas of Development and International Economy, working mainly with global value chains, public investment, production structure, international trade and sustainability. She leads the formulation of sustainable finance policies, such as the regulation of carbon markets and the sustainable taxonomy in Brazil.

Leadership Dialogue 3