The Project
Duration: March 2024 – March 2025
EIB Announcement: https://institute.eib.org/2024/04/new-research-contract-with-universita-...
EIB Research Map: https://institute.eib.org/whatwedo/knowledge/research-map/
The University of Trento has signed a new research contract for young researcher (STAREBEI, STAges de REcherche BEI-EIB research internships) with the European Investment Bank (EIB) on “Leading the Sustainable Transition: Multilateral Financial Institutions and Supply Chains Governance”.
Granting Institution: European Investment Bank (EIB)
Objectives
In light of the current and forthcoming EU legislation on sustainability reporting (CSRD) and due diligence obligations (CSDDD), the objective of the project is to examine the role that finance and, particularly, multilateral financial institutions such as European Investment Bank will play in helping business pursuing ESG goals, thus supporting the sustainable transition of global value chains. The green transition represents a cost for business, but also an opportunity from an environmental, social, and economic perspective; to this end, financial institutions and development banks can provide an essential contribution in terms of directing capital flows towards sustainable investments, as drivers of change.
It has however become clear that the sustainable transition cannot be limited to single large multinationals but must extend to the entire supply chain. The governance of the financing relationship facilitates this process and can have a significant impact upon the value chain governance, with special regard to procurement strategies within and outside the EU market. The correlation between green projects, financing relationships and supply contracts is therefore at the core of this research proposal. In particular, activities of this project will mainly consist of evaluating: i) how the access to resources from green projects impacts on the role of parties (financiers, chain leaders, suppliers) in the supply chain; ii) what reporting mechanism should be put in place to ensure the benchmarking of credible commitments of the value chains; iii) what control can or shall multilateral financial institutions exercise over the allocation of resources and what measures and remedies can be used to prevent, monitor or correct non-compliance with the abovementioned commitments.
Implementation
The project is expected to: i) contribute to the observation and the improvement of current practices of multilateral institution; ii) offer a comparative analysis of financing mechanisms in selected areas of interest (among, e.g., global value chains sourcing 'critical raw materials', access to technologies, logistics, circular value chains); iii) help businesses and financing institutions improving their ESG strategies; iv) identify criteria for the accountability of EU institutions for environmental-related actions.
Research team
Participants: Paola Iamiceli (University Tutor), Elia Cerrato Garcia (Researcher), Federico Pistelli (Supporting Researcher)