Three years ago, the Luxembourg Stock Exchange signed an agreement with UN Women in which we committed to jointly promote gender equality financing and the empowerment of women. Since then, we have taken several steps to strengthen gender finance and gender-responsive investment. We have started labelling all gender-specific bonds listed on the LuxSE to make it easier for investors to identify sustainable bonds that use part or all of the proceeds for gender equality objectives, such as lending to women-led micro-enterprises. Today, around 100 gender-specific bonds are listed on our market.

We have also developed a training course on gender finance, published a market study on the state of the gender bond market in 2023, and contributed to a series of case studies on gender focused bonds published by UN Women. These initiatives aim to raise awareness of the role of capital markets in promoting gender equality, and to encourage more issuers to identify and give visibility to projects that promote women's empowerment. To bring about real change, we need to strengthen financing for women on the one hand, and bring more women into decision-making positions on the other.

All gender bonds contribute in one way or another to the promotion of gender equality. When we celebrated International Women's Day two years ago, we also celebrated the issuance of a gender bond by NMB Bank in Tanzania. This bond was the first of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa and gave around 3,000 women in Tanzania access to the finance they needed to start or grow their businesses. Last year, we used International Women's Day as an opportunity to celebrate the launch of a gender-specific bond by the Argentinian development organisation Pro Mujer. This bond provides loans to more than 1,300 low-income female entrepreneurs in Argentina.

Both bonds aim to tackle one of the biggest challenges facing many women in emerging markets – lack of access to finance. Many investors consider the gender dimension in their investment strategies, and therefore it is important to highlight investment opportunities that contribute to improving the lives of women and girls.

Yes, they do indeed, and that is why gender equality is key to realising the Sustainable Development Goals. There is an oft-quoted saying that „when you empower a woman, you empower a nation“ and I think this is a great way to illustrate how gender equality benefits everyone. Women-led businesses tend to be more focused on sustainability, diversity and inclusion. When women are empowered, they typically use this expertise to drive positive, long-term societal change. For this reason, women are the key to climate protection.

In January, we published a report using figures from our LGX DataHub to set out the total amount of global sustainable bond issuance for 2024. According to this report, the total number of new sustainable bond issues increased in 2024 compared to 2023 and 2022. With 878 billion euros worth of new green, social, sustainable and sustainability-related bonds listed globally last year, 2024 is the second-best year for sustainable bond issuance after 2021, with green and sustainability bonds being the most favoured categories. Europe continued to be the most active region in sustainable bond issuance in 2024, with Asian issuers increasing their market share. It is also interesting to note that the private sector accounted for 57% of sustainable bond issuance in 2024. Given the various discussions about sustainable finance, it is important to look at the actual figures, and the figures show that sustainable finance is on the rise.

In February, we published a market study in which we analysed the development of the market for sustainability-linked bonds. SLBs differ from traditional sustainable debt instruments in that they are not use of proceeds bonds. Rather, SLBs raise funds to help companies and other issuers achieve predefined sustainability targets within a set timeframe, and can therefore be used to finance a company's transition process.

According to the LGX DataHub, there are now 823 SLBs listed globally from 400 issuers, raising a total of 257 billion euros. Business issuers dominate this space, and the vast majority of the targets set are environmental targets linked to, for example, reducing a company's direct or indirect carbon emissions. Although the issuance of SLBs has steadily declined since 2022, we still consider them to be an important and innovative financial instrument, especially for corporate issuers that need funding to meet their net zero commitments.

Emerging economies often suffer the most from the consequences of climate change, and have contributed the least to the climate crisis. Sustainable finance is about mobilising finance for sustainable development goals, but also about channelling capital flows to the regions and communities where the funds are most urgently needed. We have made it a priority to promote sustainable finance initiatives in new regions, particularly in Africa and Asia, so that sustainable financial markets can develop locally and benefit from sustainable investments. Today, only 1% of global green bond issuance comes from Africa, although the need for finance for the continent's sustainable development is significant. Stock exchanges can therefore work together across continents and contribute to the creation of better connected and sustainable capital markets.

This year, the LGX Academy is celebrating its fifth anniversary and we have achieved a lot. In the first few years, we organised training modules on sustainable finance topics for groups and various institutions. Starting this year, we have decided to focus more and more on capacity building in emerging markets, as we believe that this is where our impact is greatest. In this regard, we have partnered with various UN agencies and the Global Green Growth Institute, among others, and our team of sustainable finance experts regularly travels to countries in Asia and Africa to provide capacity building training to stock exchanges, government employees, financial authorities and market participants. One example is Sri Lanka, where our team held a training event on green bond issuance. The following year, a Sri Lankan bank issued the country's first green bond, which is listed with us.