UNEP-FI Signatories, including banks and insurers, are encouraged to express, vis-a-vis the G7 and G20 processes, their support for the Paris Agreement and its determined implementation worldwide by signing the 2017 global investor letter on climate change. The letter calls on governments to:

  • Continue to support and implement the Paris Agreement, including the implementation of nationally-determined contributions and 2050 climate plans to achieve the goals of that agreement
  • Drive investment into the low carbon transition through aligning climate-related policies, phasing out fossil fuel subsidies and including carbon pricing where appropriate
  • Implement climate-related financial reporting frameworks, including supporting the Financial Stability Board Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures’ recommendations

This letter will be sent to the heads of state of the Group of 7 nations (Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, the U.K. and the U.S.) and released to the press in advance of the G7 summit on 25-26 May 2017.  It will also form the basis of future communications to the G20 to support ongoing engagement.

To add your organization’s name to the letter, please let us know by sending an email to remco.fischer@unep.org, and by entering your organisation’s name at this link:
https://www.tfaforms.com/4612398

There is no cost to sign the letter and no further actions are required of signatories.  The letter will signed by organisation names only – not CEOs (no actual signatures are needed).

The deadline to sign this letter is Monday 15 May 2017.

Download the investor letter here.

Download the Q&A document here.

What is UNEP FI’s role?

This letter was drafted through a collaboration among six organisations: the Asia Investor Group on Climate Change (AIGCC), CDP, the Ceres Investor Network on Climate Risk and Sustainability (Ceres), the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC), the Investor Group on Climate Change Australia/New Zealand (IGCC), the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). This letter builds on the precedent of previous global investor statements that your organization may have signed, including the Global Investor Statement on Climate Change endorsed by 407 financial institutions representing more than USD 24 trillion in assets under management.

UNEP FI supports the letter and the mobilisation of financial institutions to endorse it, but is not one of its formal sponsors. The reason is that UN Environment already is involved in facilitating intergovernmental negotiation streams in the G20 process itself, and that it could become confusing for Governments if, in addition, UN Environment also helped facilitate third-party, non-state inputs into the process.

We are still keen, however, to give to UNEP FI signatories full access to all relevant communications and advocacy channels in the climate and environmental space including this letter.

Please note this letter remains confidential document (not for distribution to the press or the public) until it is published with a full list of signatories shortly before the G7 summit in late May.

Which investors have already lent their support to the letter?

To date, within only one week since the recruitment process started, the letter has been signed by over 90 investors and other financial institutions.