Digital library on sustainable finance
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The international community set itself the goal of limiting the rise in global warming to 2°C by 2100. To reach this target, societies must rethink and transform the way they operate, especially with regard to carbon dioxide emissions. Can finance help the world rise to the challenge?
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Practitioner Roundups Special Issue: Can Finance Make the Planet Greener? - DE
Practitioner Roundups Special Issue: Can Finance Make the Planet Greener? - FR
Practitioner Roundups Special Issue: Can Finance Make the Planet Greener? - IT
Practitioner Roundups Special Issue: Can Finance Make the Planet Greener? - EN
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The new edition of the Best Practice Principles for Shareholder Voting Research & Analysis was launched in July 2019, after a two-year consultation period by the group of five firms that sponsor them.
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Best Practice Principles for Providers of Shareholder Voting Research & Analysis 2019 - EN
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This document details the key steps regarding impact analysis, target setting & implementation, and accountability a bank needs to take to ensure the effective implementation of the Principles for Responsible Banking.
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Principles for Responsible Banking: Key Steps to be Implemented - EN
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This document sets out the 6 Principles and the preamble of the Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB) .
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This briefing paper aims to help investors and banks understand how they could use Internal Carbon Pricing (ICP) in their decision-making, specifically for their investment and lending practices.
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This document is a technical supplement to the April 2019 NGFS Comprehensive report. The supplement provides an overview of existing approaches for quantitatively assessing climate-related risks and identifies key areas for further research. It also sets out a menu of options for central banks and supervisors to assess the risks.
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Macroeconomic and financial stability: Implications of climate change - EN
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In the 2019 edition of the Swiss Sustainable Investment Market Study, SSF provides in-depth insights into recent market developments. The study reveals a sharp increase in the total volume of sustainable investments, again highlighting the growing importance of sustainability in the Swiss financial industry.
The full report is available in English and summaries in German and French.
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Swiss Sustainable Investment Market Study 2019 - DE
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The Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) publishes several reports a year, covering key themes in current economic and financial issues. In this edition, OMFIF discusses the increasing attention that Central Banks are giving to climate change.
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This handbook brings together in one publication a series of impact reporting frameworks for eligible green categories covering several sectors, released since 2017: Sustainable Water and Wastewater Management Projects, Sustainable Waste Management and Resource-Efficiency Projects, Clean Transportation Projects and Green Building Projects.
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Since the original publication of the Green Bond Principles (GBP), and the subsequent releases of the Social Bond Principles (SBP) and Sustainability Bond Guidelines (SBG), market participants have sought additional information on how to interpret these principles especially for its practical application for transactions, as well as in the context of market developments and complementary initiatives.
In order to further enhance the accessibility of information on these topics, a compendium of the Q&A in a “Guidance Handbook” has been published, organised thematically around 5 sections: Fundamentals, Governance & Membership, Core Components of the GBP/SBP, Market and Technical Issues and Other Market and Official Sector Initiatives. .
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The ninth edition of the Annual Impact Investor Survey demonstrates the increasing scale and maturity of the impact investing industry. The report draws on responses from 266 leading impact investing organizations from around the world, including: fund managers, foundations, banks, development finance institutions, family offices, permanent investment companies, pension funds, and others. These respondents collectively manage USD 239 billion, a subset of the total USD 502 billion in the market.
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On 18 June 2019, the Technical Expert Group (TEG) published the Technical report on EU taxonomy. The report sets out the basis for a future EU taxonomy in legislation. The report contains:
- technical screening criteria for 67 activities across 8 sectors that can make a substantial contribution to climate change mitigation;
- a methodology and worked examples for evaluating substantial contribution to climate change adaptation;
- guidance and case studies for investors preparing to use the taxonomy.
In addition to its Technical report, the TEG has also published a supplementary report on using the taxonomy. This provides investors and companies with a concise and clear explanation of why the taxonomy is needed, what it looks like, and its ease of use.
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On 18 June 2019, the Technical Expert Group (TEG) published its Report on EU Green Bond Standard. The TEG proposes that the Commission creates a voluntary, non-legislative EU Green Bond Standard to enhance the effectiveness, transparency, comparability and credibility of the green bond market and to encourage the market participants to issue and invest in EU green bonds. The proposal builds on best market practices.
A two-pager summarising its key recommendations is also available.
Building on the recommendations of the June 2019 report, the TEG published a usability guide for the EU Green Bond Standard in March 2020.
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In June 2019, the European Commission published new guidelines on corporate climate-related information reporting, which provide companies with practical recommendations on how to better report the impact that their activities are having on the climate as well as the impact of climate change on their business. They are a supplement to the general guidelines on non-financial reporting published in 2017, which are still applicable.
The new guidelines integrate the recommendations of the Financial stability board's taskforce on climate-related financial disclosures (TCFD) and take account of the forthcoming taxonomy on sustainable activities that is under development. A summary of the guidelines is available here.
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This study provides responsible investors with insights on current key sustainability trends and challenges that companies in the Housing Sector are facing. Furthermore, it presents solutions that several businesses, from the eleven different housing sub-sectors, may offer to help solve global social and environmental problems. These issues are important both for ethical investors as well as investors who deliberately manage ESG-related investments risks and opportunities.
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This best practice report contains guidance on ESG integration in equity and fixed income investments and case studies on how ESG integration is “done” by leading practitioners.
This report focuses on the current state of ESG integration in the APAC region. Other regional reports focus on the Americas and the EMEA region.
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ESG integration in Asia Pacific: markets, practices and data - EN
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Finance Watch has published a landscape paper on natural capital and ecosystem services, mapping the efforts made so far in conservation finance and suggests some policy ideas ahead of the 2020 COP, with the aim to mainstream the the natural capital approaches in financial systems.
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The Global Sustainable Investment Review 2018, the fourth edition of this biennial report, collates the results from the market studies of regional sustainable investment forums from Europe, the United States, Japan, Canada, and Australia and New Zealand. It provides a snapshot of sustainable investing in these markets at the start of 2018 by drawing on the in-depth regional and national reports from GSIA members—Eurosif, Japan Sustainable Investment Forum (JSIF), Responsible Investment Association Australasia, RIA Canada and US SIF.
This report also includes data on the African sustainable investing market, from the African Investing for Impact Barometer, and on Latin America from the Principles for Responsible Investment.
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The Global Impact Investing Network’s Sizing the Impact Investing Market report provides an in-depth analysis of the current size and composition of the impact investing market. The GIIN estimates the current size of the global impact investing market to be $502 billion.
Based on the collation of AUM data on more than 1,300 impact investors around the world, this research also underscores the diversity of the market, capturing data from many types of investors. These include asset managers, foundations, banks, development finance institutions, family offices, pension funds, insurance companies, and others.
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In its first comprehensive report the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) provides six recommendations for central banks, supervisors, policymakers and financial institutions to enhance their role in the greening of the financial system and the managing of environment and climate-related risks.
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A call for action. Climate change as a source of financial risk - EN
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This whitepaper by Inrate looks at current and upcoming developments in the transport sector, highlighting that in order accomplish the transition to a sustainable transportation system, it is imperative for society to transition to zero-emission vehicles, internalize high external costs and develop the necessary infrastructure. These changes offer significant opportunity for investors.
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For the 2019 Q1 Investor Watch, UBS looked at how women worldwide engage with their finances. From September 2017 to January 2019, UBS surveyed 3,652 women and led in-depth interviews with 71 respondents, showing that while 80% of women globally are highly involved in their short-term finances, almost 60% of women do not engage in long-term financial activities such as investing, insurance or retirement.
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UBS Investor Watch: Own your Worth - DE
UBS Investor Watch: Own your Worth - FR
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This study discusses the economic and legal impacts of the EU Action Plan Sustainable Finance on the Swiss financial sector and makes concrete recommendations for sustainable finance in Switzerland. Most importantly, Switzerland must adapt its framework conditions in such a way that the Swiss financial sector will continue to have access to the European market and be able to keep pace with international developments.
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The UN Environment convened Financial Centers for Sustainability (FC4S) Network published the first State of Play report, which measures the contribution of financial centres to sustainable development and the ongoing low-carbon transition.
The report looks at how the world’s leading financial centres are entering a new phase of strategic action on green and sustainable finance and also identifies key challenges.
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This best practice report contains guidance on ESG integration in equity and fixed income investments and case studies on how ESG integration is “done” by leading practitioners. The report is intended to help investors learn how they can better integrate ESG data into their analysis and investment decision making.
The report focuses on the current state of ESG integration in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Other regional reports focus on the Americas and APAC regions.
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ESG integration in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa: markets, practices, and data - EN
