Partnership between United Nations Environment and the global financial sector to promote sustainable finance
21 April 2021
Geneva, Wednesday 21 April. Today, on the eve of President Biden’s Head of State Climate Summit, Mark Carney (the UK Prime Minister’s Finance Advisor for COP26 and UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance) launches a global alliance that brings together existing and new net-zero finance initiatives into one sector-wide strategic forum: The Glasgow…
21 April 2021
21 April 2021 – The United Nations-convened Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance today announces a tripling in membership from its launch at the UN Secretary General’s Climate Action Summit in September 2019, with 37 members now committing to set and report on interim targets towards net-zero portfolio emisisons by 2050. Alliance members Wespath and the David…
20 April 2021
The fifth edition of the UNEP Adaptation Gap Report (2020) found that 72% of countries have adopted at least one national adaptation instrument in their policy planning. Most developing countries are also preparing National Adaptation Plans to strengthen their focus on climate change adaptation. However, the capital needed to implement these plans has yet to…
16 April 2021
Read about the conference hosted by the European Investment Bank and WWF, where Portugal, represented by Ricardo Serrão Santos, Minister of the Sea Republic of Portugal, endorsed the Sustainable Blue Economy Finance Principles and the EBRD and the Asian Development Bank were welcomed as recent signatories of the Principles.
15 April 2021
The UN-convened Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance has today released a new resource designed to help asset owners set expectations for, evaluate, and engage with asset managers on their climate-related proxy voting activities. The document, Elevating Climate Diligence on Proxy Voting Approaches: A Foundation for Asset Owner Engagement of Asset Managers, outlines a set of principles…
For investors (institutional investors and asset managers), banks, financial regulators, other financial industry actors, and corporates in Thailand and in the region.
The session guides participants in developing their understanding of what is human rights, what are some of the infringements seen in business activities in Thailand and internationally, and what are the best practices by investors and banks to protect human rights.
16 March 2021
Composed of 12 leading organisations, the the Civil Society Advisory Body of the Principles for Responsible Banking is a unique, first-of-its-kind forum for constructive and meaningful engagement between wider civil society and the collective banking industry.
UNEP FI, Finresp and Ecobusiness fund delivered a Series of Webinars on Ecosystems and Sustainable Finance from April to June 2021; webinars were conducted in Spanish.
12 March 2021
A core focus area of the UN-convened Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance is Financing the Transition. To address this, the Alliance has a dedicated working group focused on identifying priority investment segments to scale up climate solution investments and technologies for tomorrow in OECD and non-OECD markets. Through this, the Alliance aims to develop and publish…
11 March 2021
The South African development bank for the agriculture sector is taking action on nature-related risks, as drought contributes to loan defaults in their portfolio. To ensure the long-term success of South Africa’s agriculture sector, Land Bank considers it vital to simultaneously support equitable ownership of land and tackle natural capital risks.
11 March 2021
The UN-convened Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance welcomes Germany’s insurance industry association GDV as a supporting partner – the first insurance industry association to become a supporter of the Alliance. GDV will be in a strong position to support better science and knowledge in measuring climate change impacts on business activities. Chair of the Net-Zero Asset…
5 March 2021
Japan’s Dai-ichi Life Insurance Company joins the United Nations-convened Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance, to become the first member based Asia. With assets under management (AUM) of $379 billion, Dai-ichi becomes the 35th member of the fast-growing Alliance, which has total AUM of $5.6 trillion. By joining the Alliance, the company commits to reducing greenhouse gas…
2 March 2021
New practical guidance enables banks, investors and insurers to understand their impact on ocean health and immediately take action to accelerate the transition to a sustainable blue economy. Leveraging best practice based on input from more than 50 pioneering institutions and experts, this guidance sets out pathways to sustainable growth across five key ocean sectors, chosen for their established connection to private finance. It presents a detailed breakdown of which activities to seek out as best practice, which activities to challenge, and which activities to avoid financing completely due to their damaging nature.
17 February 2021
Geneva, 17 February 2021 – Transition risk poses a significant near-term threat to the economy. This is one of the findings released today in the latest set of three UNEP Finance Initiative reports on climate risk management tools for financial institutions. The latest guidance is the result of a leading-edge project that convened 39 banks…
16 February 2021
The UN-convened Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance has issued a call to asset managers to collaborate in driving the development of blended finance vehicles, with the aim of drastically ramping up investment in climate solutions. One working area of the Alliance is focused on financing transition of the real economy, which focuses on identifying priority investment…
11 February 2021
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called on investors who move much of the world’s money to set increasingly ambitious targets and adopt specific plans for achieving net-zero carbon emissions. “The private sector has a crucial role to play in building a more equitable and sustainable world. Our simple objective for 2021 is to make sure…
2 February 2021
This foundational report maps ocean finance, revealing trends in lending, underwriting and investment activities which impact the ocean .It includes survey results across 100+ financial professionals revealing current trends, frameworks and financial instruments that are successfully addressing ocean sustainability and highlights new opportunities and gaps in the market. The report covers 5 key ocean sectors: seafood, ports, shipping, coastal and marine tourism and marine renewable energy, notably offshore wind, chosen for their established connection with private finance.
1 February 2021
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called on investors who move much of the world’s money to set increasingly ambitious targets and adopt specific plans for achieving net-zero carbon emissions. “The private sector has a crucial role to play in building a more equitable and sustainable world. Our simple objective for 2021 is to make sure…
26 January 2021
UNEP FI and the European Banking Federation (EBF) have launched a unique report assessing the extent to which the EU Taxonomy on Sustainable Activities could be applied to core banking products for labelling or disclosure purposes. This report is the result of a project with 26 major banks, seven banking associations and five observing organisations…
25 January 2021
Ten UNEP FI members are calling for greater action to boost adaptation finance and have made commitments on climate risk reporting. At the Climate Adaptation Summit 2021, the leading financial institutions delivered a statement calling for greater action on assessment, reporting and management of the physical risks of climate change, and asking policy makers to deliver mandatory disclosure requirements on climate risk.