Publications

In the two years since COP16 in Cali, Colombia, the finance sector has made significant progress in building the foundations for nature finance. Yet financial flows remain fundamentally misaligned with global biodiversity goals. UNEP FI's 2026 report card finds that stronger action by financial institutions, alongside clearer government policies and regulations, is needed to meet the 2030 targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. 

This report provides guidance for banks on engaging with policymakers and industry stakeholders to accelerate the decarbonization of the cement sector, a hard-to-abate industry.  Concrete is essential to modern construction and the cement it contains constitutes one of the world’s most emissions-intensive industries. Achieving low-carbon cement will require a combination of breakthrough technologies, material innovation and an enabling policy environment. As demand for cement continues to grow in many emerging economies, accelerating the sector’s transition is increasingly urgent.

This UNEP FI policy brief examines how nature-related considerations are being incorporated into banking-relevant regulation across the two major economic and financial systems of China and the European Union. It aims to to help financial sector practitioners and policymakers understand how nature-related considerations are being incorporated into banking-relevant regulation in the two jurisdictions, within a rapidly evolving global landscape.

The UNEP FI Risk Centre has developed a series of resources to help risk professionals at financial institutions better understand and use sustainability-related disclosures within prudential risk management. The series is anchored in the Conceptual Framework for Sustainability Risk Integration, which sets out seven core elements for embedding sustainability-related considerations into existing risk management processes.

The Sustainability Disclosure Readiness Indicators (SDRI) Toolkit helps real-economy companies and financial institutions across sectors gauge their readiness for sustainability-related risk disclosures, supporting internal reflection and gap analysis.

A Chief Risk Officer’s Guide to the Principles for Responsible Banking explains how CROs and their teams can implement the PRB through the bank’s existing risk management framework. It connects each of the six Principles to the core elements of risk management, with practical actions, questions to ask, and case studies from signatory banks.

The Ocean Investment Protocol offers a framework for financial institutions, policy makers and industry leaders to lead this transition. First published in 2025, this updated edition reflects developments in the sustainable ocean finance landscape and highlights new priorities; including stronger action by central banks, regulators, and supervisors and better integration of ocean considerations into financial decision-making.

This guidance gives asset owners and managers a shared foundation for clearer, more consistent dialogue.

This guide helps risk professionals at banks gather the information they need to monitor and manage nature-related risks and opportunities across their portfolios. Structured around ten questions, the guide helps banks better understand their nature-related impacts, capabilities, and management practices – and turn that understanding into greater resilience and future opportunities. 

This report provides commercial banks, particularly signatories to the Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB), with a practical framework for understanding how circular economy solutions can address nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities across three ecosystem categories: ocean and marine, freshwater, and terrestrial and land-based ecosystems.