On 6 June 2024, the annual UIC Finance Platform Plenary session was held in person at UIC HQ and online, moderated by Chakib Metennani, UIC CFO.
During the welcome speech, Stefano Pierini, Chair of the Finance Platform, introduced on of the topics to be addressed within the Plenary Session: financing rail projects in low and lower-middle-income countries, focusing on green bonds and carbons credits as well as the opportunities these would provide. François Davenne, UIC Director General, added that UIC had recently been addressing the topic of financing of railway projects, and that it would present a study, produced together with ALSTOM, the University of Birmingham and Roland Berger, entitled “Bridging the rail finance gap: Challenges and Opportunities for Low and Lower-Middle Income Countries” later in the Plenary Session.
This pioneering document, together with a complementary study by the World Bank “Mobilising Climate Finance for Railways”, considers supporting the development of a carbon financed market for rail. Railways form part of the solution to global warming, making it logical that a good part of carbon financing would be devoted to supporting the development of rail infrastructure, as well as public transport in general.
Davenne further noted that UIC works closely with public transport providers and towards active mobility, expressing the hope that the Finance Platform would enhance progress in these areas.
During the meeting, moderators of the Finance Platform working groups RCF 1 - Passenger accounting group; RCF 2 - Freight accounting group; RCF 3 - Group governing the rules of financial relations between companies; the Taxation group; the Debt group; the Statistics group, and the PATRIC group presented their work programmes.
Guest speaker presentations were made by Hicham Machmoumi, Head of the Department of Development and Financing, ONCF, on “The Moroccan high-speed train ‘Al Boraq’ as a pioneering experience for green bonds”, Lucie Anderton, UIC Head of Sustainability, on the results of the previously mentioned study “Bridging the rail finance gap”, and Guillaume Rémy, ZEROCA, on “Carbon credit opportunities for the rail sector”.
