 Launch of Bloom or Bust - A financial sector briefing on biodiversity & ecosystem services
31 March, 2008 The business case for biodiversity & ecosystem services is not just about conserving endangered species. It is becoming an issue of global policy that the benefits provided by biodiversity are valued and accounted for within traditional business risk frameworks.
This report, developed by UNEP FI's Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services Work stream (BESW) provides direction for financial institutions that wish to manage biodiversity & ecosystem service risks more effectively. It also illustrates how opportunities and tools for financial products and services can be developed.
View the report.
UNEP FI and WBCSD address the ESG inefficiency of Capital Markets
4 March, 2008 Are capital market makers still not convinced of the financial relevance of responsible investment issues or do they simply lack the information and instruments needed to truly act ESG inclusively? Is the sustainability-related information delivered to capital markets appropriate and provided in the right format?
View the results of a recent workshop that addressed these questions.
E-Learning Course - Climate Change: Risks and Opportunities for the Finance Sector
3 March, 2008 Registrations Now Open
Push your environmental skills ahead of the curve with the 2008 E-Learning Course on Climate Change: Risks and Opportunities for the Finance Sector. After the overwhelming demand for its first course in 2007, the UNEP FI Climate Change Working Group and its partner UNITAR, the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, will be running a second and updated programme from 2 to 23 June 2008.
- Understand the basics of climate change and its effects on economic systems and its financial sectors.
- Learn what greenhouse-gas markets, carbon finance, cat-bonds and weather derivatives are all about.
- Find out how your institution could optimally minimize the resulting risks and embrace the opportunities.
- Work via the internet from home/your office/elsewhere and under a flexible time curriculum.
Set some time aside for this three week intensive course and register at www.unitar.org/unepfi as soon as possible as places are limited.
UNEP FI’s Climate Change Working Group (CCWG) launches its latest CEO Briefing at COP 13/MOP 3 in Bali, Indonesia
11 December, 2007 The Climate Change Working Group has launched its latest publication "Carbon Crunch: Meeting the Cost" at the Kyoto negotiations in Bali. Presented at an official side event, the briefing analyzes the most recent studies on the economics and cost of climate change, and the investment required for mitigation and adaptation. It highlights the crucial role played by the finance sector due to its influence in directing investment and financial flows, and reviews what leading financial institutions are already doing to address the climate problem, and what should be done to extend and deepen those actions across the entire sector. The briefing also emphasizes the crucial role of the policy making community in setting up the regulatory frameworks that will provide the necessary long-term investment horizons, and pave the way for further large-scale investment towards a low carbon economy.
View the Report.
Launch of the online Human Rights Guidance Tool for the Financial Sector
24 October, 2007 UNEP FI's Human Rights Work Stream launched on 24 October 2007 the pilot phase of its first project, an online Human Rights Guidance Tool for the Financial Sector. The tool, which is open for all of the global membership to use, provides practical guidance designed to assist frontline business and client officers in the lending and investment community. It is industry sector-specific, including background information on international standards and issues of relevance to different cultures and geographies and poses key questions to assist in impact assessment. Supported by Barclays, the tool has undergone a legal review by Dewey LeBoeuf. It will now go through a six month pilot phase after which further regionally specific information will be included and refinements made based on the experiences of financial sector professionals using it. The online guidance tool will be followed by a printed CEO Briefing on human rights issues for the financial sector, due to be launched in early 2008.
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