These principles, agreed at COP21 in Paris by around 20 public and private financial institutions are:
Principle 1: COMMIT to Climate Strategies
Principle 2: MANAGE Climate Risks
Principle 3: PROMOTE Climate Smart Objectives
Principle 4: IMPROVE Climate Performance
Principle 5: ACCOUNT for your Climate Action
The Paris Agreement has set a significant challenge for governments and the financial community: aligning all financial flows with a below 2°C-coherent economy and society. The Climate Action in Financial Institutions initiative has significant potential to support this commitment and develop and share practice to the benefit of the entire financial community to help implement the Paris Agreement.
31 Institutions are now part of the Initiative and today they announced the launch of a new online and publically accessible Climate Mainstreaming Practices Database, shared the progress made by the initiative, and specifically how it can support the implementation of the Paris Agreement in the financial sector.
The Climate Mainstreaming Practices Database will help institutions to share their knowledge and experience via concrete case studies to help them take into consideration climate change and implement the 5 Principles.
“Since the Initiative was launched two years ago, we have come a long way. The case studies contained in this new database launched today will give financial institutions and business a much improved overview of how their peers are integrating climate change in all their operations. It is an invaluable resource, which will feed the work of the initiative, help financial institutions progressively improve the way they integrate climate change in their operations, and contribute to making the Paris Agreement a reality. Today we call on the entire financial sector as well as the business community to join the initiative and share their own practices“,
said Benoit Leguet, Managing Director of I4CE.
“This initiative brings together public and private financial institutions from around the world in our commitment to integrate climate in everything we do. Building on the five mainstreaming principles we launched at COP 21 two years ago, today’s launch of the Climate Mainstreaming Practices Database makes an important contribution to share knowledge and good practice on our approaches to climate change. Importantly, it also increases transparency in green finance. Better information is urgently needed to align the financial sector with the Paris goals. That’s why we at the EU Bank, are proud to be a member of the Climate Action in Financial Institutions initiative and we invite the financial community to join us and support the implementation of the Paris Agreement”,
said Jonathan Taylor, EIB Vice President for Climate Action.
“Financial institutions have a key role to play in addressing the challenges of a global low-carbon and resilient development, internally and through relationships with their clients. Governments, multilateral organizations and private investors need to bet on climate change considerations in order to boost economic growth, and by mainstreaming these considerations, financial institutions become a reliable partner that can deliver better, more sustainable, short and long term results”,
said Felix Bergel, Director of Institutional Funding of CAF.
The Climate Mainstreaming Practices Database contains close to 50 case studies submitted by member institutions related to both the 5 Principles and the 4 areas of work of the initiative for 2017-18:
- Climate risks: approaches, tools and methodologies
- Mapping reporting initiatives and understanding implementation challenges
- City-level climate smart approaches and financial instruments
- Spreading a climate strategy into a whole organization
