Finance
Water Finance Conference coming to The Water Tower in 2024
The Water Tower Global Innovation Hub in Buford, Georgia, will host 10th annual event for CFOs, finance professionals Aug. 6-7
The Water Finance Conference, a two-day educational seminar for water utility finance executives, will host its 2024 event Aug. 6-7 at The Water Tower Global Innovation Hub in Buford, Georgia. The Water Tower is located about 45 miles from Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
The Water Finance Conference convenes executive-level utility professionals, including directors, general managers, CEOs, CFOs and city finance managers along with consultants, financial advisors, legal professionals and service providers involved in financing municipal water, wastewater and stormwater systems. Since 2015, the event has been hosted annually by the journal Water Finance & Management, published by Benjamin Media, Inc., in partnership with the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA).
The Water Tower, a first-of-its-kind nonprofit water innovation hub born out of Gwinnett County Department of Water Resources, celebrated its grand opening in April 2022. The $33.7 million campus is a global hub for water utilities, researchers, companies and other water-related organizations to collaboratively solve critical, real-world water and environmental challenges. The campus features multiple laboratories, a field training center and water technology demonstration areas. It is located next to Gwinnett County’s F. Wayne Hill Water Resources Center, an award-winning advanced wastewater treatment and resource recovery facility.
“We are very excited to bring our tenth annual Water Finance Conference, exclusively for financial decision makers in the utility sector, to The Water Tower in 2024,” said Rob Krzys, president of Benjamin Media, Inc. “The Water Tower focuses on applied research, technology innovation and much more. We’re thrilled to bring a discussion on financial innovation to their campus for a couple days in August. See you in Georgia in 2024!”
The Water Finance Conference is the only conference in the U.S. water utility sector exclusively tailored to finance professionals. Leading topics covered include rate studies and utility rate setting; low-income affordability/customer affordability programs; IIJA/Bipartisan Infrastructure Law fund implementation; applying federal funding locally; leveraging Clean/Drinking Water SRFs; budgeting and short/long-term financial planning; and regulatory issues affecting utilities – Lead and Copper Rule Improvements, PFAS, etc.
Speakers generally include a mix of drinking water/clean water utility finance officers, general managers, public affairs directors, municipal advisors, EPA officials and service providers. Presenters and panelists have also included city and county finance managers, current/former mayors and city councilmembers, and others with a vested interest in the funding of water infrastructure in the United States.
The 2024 conference is sponsored by main event sponsors NACWA and Synario, with additional sponsors Wade Trim and tabletop sponsor Synario.
The Call for Speakers is now open for the 2024 conference. Click here for details and to submit an abstract. Additional conference details are available at waterfinanceconference.com.
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World Bank drops climate finance target amid US pressure
The World Bank is ditching its commitment to steer 45 percent of its spending toward projects with climate benefits, after facing pressure from the Trump administration.
The move, announced Monday following a meeting of the bank’s board of directors last week, marks a victory in President Donald Trump’s effort to purge climate policies from U.S. foreign policy. His administration has described the target as “distortionary” and “nonsensical.”
The bank preserved its broader Climate Change Action Plan — of which the 45 percent target was a key metric — just days before it was set to expire at the end of June. In addition to directing money toward climate projects, the plan provides technical support for helping countries reduce their greenhouse gas pollution and adapt to rising temperatures.
“We will retire the 45% climate co-benefits target,” the World Bank Group said in a statement, noting that it had “done significant work in answering client demand and needs.”
The bank’s work on climate “is and will remain firmly client driven, supporting them in delivering on their own ambitions as set out in their national plans and NDCs,” the statement added, referring to the nationally determined contributions countries submit under the Paris Agreement.
The decision to drop the climate finance target follows months of pressure from the Trump administration. People with knowledge of the negotiations said the U.S. was firm that the target must go despite other countries indicating their support for the bank’s climate goal. The U.S. has sway over the bank’s decisions as its largest shareholder.
Beyond the finance target, the Climate Change Action Plan also provides diagnostic reports on countries’ climate and development goals and aims to align lending with the Paris Agreement, which calls for preventing temperature rise from surpassing 2 degrees Celsius since the Industrial Revolution.
The bank said it would honor a board request to undertake an independent evaluation of the climate plan to determine if it’s helping countries grapple with rising temperatures. The decision effectively extends the plan beyond its expiration at the end of June.
The climate target was supported by many of the bank’s shareholders. It’s also been a prominent signal of the bank’s support for climate action at a time when the impacts of rising temperatures are accelerating.
“This is way, way away from where we should be for a responsible financial architecture,” said one official from a developed country who was directly involved in the negotiations and was granted anonymity to describe internal discussions.
The bank will continue to track and report on the amount of money going to projects with climate co-benefits. It exceeded its own target last year by directing 48 percent of its financing to climate-related projects.
Other climate targets embedded in agreements that govern different arms of the bank will remain, including one for the International Development Association, the bank’s fund for the poorest countries.
Multilateral development banks play a key role in global climate negotiations, where wealthy countries have committed to helping provide $300 billion a year for poorer countries by 2035. That no longer includes the United States, which has left the Paris Agreement and will exit the underlying United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change early next year.
“Targets send enormous signals about an institution’s direction of travel,” said Clemence Landers, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development. “At the same time, it’s a sign of the times and the World Bank is doing its level best to not rankle its largest shareholder.”
She believes the bank will continue financing renewable energy projects in countries that want them, despite having dropped its climate target.
“I wouldn’t be shocked if the bank continued to have an extremely robust clean pipeline with or without this target,” said Landers.
The bank says retiring the 45 percent target is part of its shift from a focus on “inputs to outcomes.” It will continue to monitor and report net greenhouse gas emissions across its projects and countries’ ability to withstand climate risks.
“We will continue to report to the Board on progress, including on climate co-benefits, and to contribute to our related joint MDB efforts,” the statement said, referring to its role as a multilateral development bank. “We will explore and discuss ways to better structure our engagement on adaptation, nature and pollution.”
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