Partnership between United Nations Environment and the global financial sector to promote sustainable finance
27 October 2020
The blue economy is an attractive opportunity for banks and insurance companies, yet some players are rushing to invest without first adopting sustainability principles that can avoid repeating the wrongs of the past, says world-renowned ecologist Enric Sala.
20 October 2020
Principles for Responsible Banking is first finance sector initiative to put into practice signatories’ commitments to robust accountability and broad engagement with establishment of Civil Society Advisory Body Signatories to the Principles for Responsible Banking commit to proactively consult with their stakeholders and to be transparent about and accountable for their positive and negative impacts…
15 October 2020
UNEP FI kicked off Day 2 of its Global Roundtable with another day full of high-level keynotes, plenaries, regional focused panels and technical sessions with over 3,000 delegates. Launches included resources to support TCFD implementation. UNEP’s Executive Director Inger Andersen said finance industry and its future profitability and our very own survival need natural systems.…
15 October 2020
Eric Usher of the UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative and Corli Pretorius of the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre say banks should urgently set targets for financing the protection of nature in the critical next decade in the same way that many have set climate targets
14 October 2020
Thirty of the world’s largest asset owners, with portfolios worth a combined $5tn (£3.8tn), have committed to cutting the carbon emissions linked to companies they invest in by up to 29% within the next four years.
Members of the UN-backed Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance – which includes Aviva, the Church of England and the $400bn US fund CalPERS – will each set decarbonisation targets for 2025 as part of wider efforts to align their portfolios with the Paris climate goals and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
14 October 2020
Former Bank of England governor Mark Carney has said banks should link executive pay to climate risk management, as part of efforts to align the finance industry with Paris climate goals.
Speaking at the UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative roundtable on Tuesday, the former central bank boss said lenders should – at the very least – be transparent over whether or not pay is being tied to climate targets.
13 October 2020
UNEP FI saw more than 2500 participants join Day 1 of its 16th Global Roundtable, held virtually for the first time ever, under the theme “Financing a Resilient Future”. The stellar line-up of speakers was led by Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary General, United Nations, who gave the opening keynote address by reminding participants that sustainable…
13 October 2020
Financial institutions can and must make the shift to circularity, ensuring the consumption and production patterns of the businesses they invest in make more efficient use of resources and minimize waste, pollution and carbon emissions. This is the conclusion of our new report Financing Circularity: Demystifying Finance for the Circular Economy. Launched today at UNEP FI’s…
13 October 2020
Thirty of the world’s largest investors with $5 trillion assets under management have collectively agreed on concrete portfolio decarbonization targets that follow the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 1.5 °C scenario for the next five years. UN-convened Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance members will implement deep greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions in the 16% to 29%…
7 October 2020
BT Pension Scheme (BT PS), the UK’s largest company pension scheme, today becomes the thirtieth member of the UN-convened Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance, bringing total assets under management to $5 trillion. The announcement came as BT PS said it has committed to an ambitious new goal to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions (scope 1-3 emissions*)…
1 October 2020
The European Commission published today the list of members of the Platform on Sustainable Finance, which includes UNEP FI. The Platform brings together experts from civil society organizations, academia, and the business and finance sector to develop sustainable finance policies and tools to tackle the urgency of the sustainability transition. For the next 2 years the…
29 September 2020
New Zealand mandates climate-related risk disclosure Momentum continues to build on climate-risk disclosure across the globe, with New Zealand’s finance minister, James Shaw, announcing legislation, which will make the country the first to require large financial institutions to disclose their climate-related risk. Many other jurisdictions have introduced guidelines and are looking at further climate-related risk…
25 September 2020
Efforts to establish a Task Force on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) have today passed an important milestone with the announcement of an Informal Working Group (IWG) comprising some of the world’s biggest banks, investors and companies, as well as governments and regulatory bodies.
25 September 2020
UN-convened Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance kicks off Sustainable Investment Forum North America Members of the UN-convened Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance and its Chair, Guenther Thallinger, launched the virtual Sustainable Investment Forum North America (SIF NA) – a collaboration between UNEP FI and Climate Action. The largest climate finance event during New York Climate Week –…
24 September 2020
UNEP FI and Oliver Wyman launch ‘Transition Check’, a web-tool that takes a scenario-based approach for assessing transition risk. As businesses consider the impacts of climate change on their long-term sustainability, it has remained difficult to measure such risks – until now. Introducing Transition Check, a web-tool that takes a scenario-based approach for assessing transition…
24 September 2020
For financial institutions, addressing biodiversity risk is now a question of sound financial risk management. Leading banks, investors and insurers are setting biodiversity targets, as a first step to reduce their risk exposure. ASN Bank has declared they will have a net positive effect on biodiversity by 2030. Storebrand aims to have an investment portfolio…
21 September 2020
One year on: Coalition of signatory banks, civil society shares progress implementing the UN Principles for Responsible Banking Exactly one year ago, on 22 September 2019, more than 130 banks in the presence of the UN Secretary General signed the first-ever global sustainability framework for the banking industry: the UN Principles for Responsible Banking.…
11 September 2020
8 September 2020
8 September 2020 – UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) has released a report on physical climate risks and opportunities from Phase II of its Task Force for Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) Banking Programme with climate risk advisory and analytics firm, Acclimatise. The report, “Charting a New Climate”, provides a state-of-the-art blueprint to support…
31 August 2020
Australian building and construction industry pension fund Cbus has announced its membership of the UN-convened Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance. The fund is the first Australian asset owner to join the Alliance, bringing membership to 29 managing nearly US$5 trillion in assets. “Cbus recognizes that to decarbonize the global economy in line with the Paris Agreement…