Digital library on sustainable finance
TITLE
AUTHOR
PUBLISHED
LANGUAGES
Summary
Position et plan d’action du Conseil fédéral concernant la responsabilité des entreprises à l’égard de la société et de l’environnement. Rapport du Conseil fédéral concernant l’état d’avancement de la mise en œuvre du plan d’action.
Link
Summary
The final report of the TCFD developed four widely adoptable recommendations on climaterelated financial disclosures that are applicable to organizations across sectors and jurisdictions . Those recommendations are grouped around the thematic areas governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets. The Task Force recommends that preparers of climate-related financial disclosures provide such disclosures in their mainstream (i.e., public) annual financial filings.
Link
Recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (final report) - EN
Summary
The aim of the publication was to spark the discussion and learning process on how the financial system in Switzerland can become more sustainable. One year after the publication of “Proposals for a Roadmap towards a Sustainable Financial System in Switzerland” by the Federal Office for the Environment (FEON), SSF set out to collect opinions on recent developments of the Swiss Financial System and the progress made in the five core areas of the “proposals". This includes asset and wealth management, institutional investors, credit business, capital markets, research and education. For this purpose, SSF invited its network to share their opinions on the developments regarding the implementation of the proposed measures through a short survey consisting of eight questions. A total of 34 individuals from the SSF network took part in the survey.
Summary
The GIIN’s 2017 Annual Impact Investor Survey is based on an analysis of the activities of 209 of the world’s leading impact investing organizations, which collectively manage nearly USD 114 bn in impact assets, a figure which serves as the best-available “floor” for the size of the impact investing market. This state of the market report presents investors’ perspectives on key issues important to the impact investing industry and also includes new topics such as investors’ commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Link
Summary
This is the 6th climate change report from Thomson Reuters and BSD Consulting which identifies the 100 biggest listed GHG emitters and finds that most of them have potential pathways to decarbonisation.
Link
Global 100 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Performance, New Pathways for Growth and Leadership - EN
Summary
From 2020, Switzerland is expected to spend between US $ 450 million and US $ 600 million annually on climate change mitigation measures in developing countries. As in the past, funding will come from both public and mobilized private sources. On 10 May 2017, the Federal Council approved a report in compliance with a postulate issued by the foreign policy commission of the National Council.
Link
Internationale Klimafinanzierung: Möglicher Beitrag der Schweiz ab 2020 - DE
Internationale Klimafinanzierung: Möglicher Beitrag der Schweiz ab 2020 - FR
Summary
A key aspect of the governance process inside organizations and markets is the measurement and disclosure of important metrics and information. This paper examines the effect of sustainability disclosure regulations on firms’ disclosure practices and valuations. Specifically, it explores implications of regulations mandating the disclosure of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) information in China, Denmark, Malaysia, and South Africa. The results suggest that even in the absence of a regulation that mandates the adoption of assurance or specific guidelines, firms seek the qualitative properties of comparability and credibility. It is further shown that increases in sustainability disclosure driven by the regulation are associated with increases in firm valuations, as reflected in Tobin’s Q. Collectively, the evidence suggest that current efforts to increase transparency around organizations’ impact on society are effective at improving disclosure quantity and quality as well as corporate value.
Link
The Consequences of Mandatory Corporate Sustainability Reporting - EN
Summary
This publication by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs in collaboration with the Global Compact Network Switzerland aims to support enterprises with the implementation of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. The guidance contains helpful information on the implementation of CSR principles and uses case studies to illustrate how the principles are applied in practice. The guidance also includes a self-test that allows you to evaluate the individual strengths and risks at your enterprise as they relate to CSR.
The English version of the publication was updated in 2018.
Download
Summary
This report written by State Street Global Advisors is a global survey of 475 institutions, which found that 68% of respondents believe that integration of an ESG strategy has significantly improved returns, showing that the adoption of ESG driven investment strategies has a future in institutional portfolios.
Link
Performing for the Future – ESG's place in investment portfolios. Today and tomorrow - EN
Summary
The PRI and the UN Global Compact issued this report as a call on CEOs to ensure their corporate pension plans adopt responsible investing policies and to highlight concrete benefits including improved investment performance, fulfilling fiduciary duty and managing regulatory risk and boosting corporate sponsor credibility.
Link
Aligning Values: Why corporate pension plans should mirror their sponsors - EN
Summary
This report from the Investor Group on Climate Change (Australia/New Zealand) and the Asia Investor Group on Climate Change (AIGCC) is thought to be the first institutional investor-specific guidance released in the wake of the TCFD draft.
Link
Transparency in Transition: A Guide to Investor Disclosure on Climate Change - EN
Summary
In der Finanzindustrie zeichnen sich neue Spielregeln ab. Neben finanzieller Rendite gewinnen nicht-ökonomische Motive an Bedeutung: Anleger fordern nachhaltige Investments, Banken positionieren sich als sozial und umweltbewusst und Kapitalmarktakteure müssen die Verteilung von gesellschaftlichem Risiko und privatem Gewinn als fair legitimieren.
Dieser transdisziplinäre Sammelband vereinigt Forschungsresultate, kritische Reflexionen und Denkanstösse führender Expertinnen und Experten aus den Bereichen Investment, Bankmanagement, Finanzethik und Moraltheologie aus der Schweiz, Deutschland, Österreich, Kanada und den USA.
Das Buch kann hier bestellt werden.
Zürich Pano Verlag, [2017]
ISBN: 978-3-290-22037-2
Download
Ethik_von_Banken_und_Finanzen_INHALTSVERZEICHNIS_de (pdf 127.7 kB)Summary
Novethic's latest study, produced with the support of ADEME, analyses the European green funds market’s trends. The research centre reviewed a selection of 165 funds, that are available in 16 countries and hold assets of € 22 bn.
Link
Summary
The biannual Global Sustainable Investment Review draws on in-depth regional and national reports from GSIA members—Eurosif, Responsible Investment Association Australasia, RIA Canada and US SIF—as well as data and insights from the PRI, JSIF (Japan), LatinSIF and the African Investing for Impact Barometer. Together, these resources provide data points, insights, analysis and examples of the shape of sustainable investing worldwide.
Link
Summary
The OECD's paper “Responsible Business Conduct for Institutional Investors” explains the application of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises in the context of institutional investors.
Link
Responsible Business Conduct for Institutional Investors - EN
Summary
The urgency of estimating the impact of climate risks on the financial system is increasingly recognized among scholars and practitioners. By adopting a network approach to financial dependencies, this paper looks at how climate policy risk might propagate through the financial system. We develop a network-based climate stress-test methodology and apply it to large Euro Area banks in a ‘green’ and a ‘brown’ scenario. The authors find that direct and indirect exposures to climate-policy-relevant sectors represent a large portion of investors’ equity portfolios, especially for investment and pension funds. These results suggest that climate policy timing matters.
Summary
This report presents 10 persuasive arguments highlighting why sustainable investments present a valuable opportunity which Swiss banks have so far failed to exploit effectively. It highlights the opportunity created for Swiss private banking by the combination of Swiss strengths and clients’ growing demand for investments with a positive social and environmental impact. The report also contains concrete tools to support advisors in fully preparing for their client discussions on sustainable investing.
Link
Summary
This short publication contains concrete tools to support advisors in fully preparing for their client discussions on sustainable investing. It highlights the opportunity created for Swiss private banking by the combination of Swiss strengths and clients’ growing demand for investments with a positive social and environmental impact.
The publication is part of the report "Sustainable investing: A unique opportunity for Swiss Private Wealth Management - Ten arguments and practical tools for client advisors" available in English.
Link
Summary
Corporate short-termism has been the subject of ongoing debate among leaders in business, government, and academia for more than 30 years, with much of the discussion focusing on whether it destroys value. This discussion document aims to provide a fact base for this ongoing debate through a systematic measurement of long- and short-termism at the company level. The findings show that companies classified as “long term” outperform their shorter-term peers on a range of key economic and financial metrics.
Link
Summary
This edition of the FOEN magazine highlights the role that the finance sector can and should play to support sustainability and environmental goals.
Link
Summary
In the annual report the Federal Department of Finance takes stock of the progress made by Switzerland regarding international financial and tax matters. The report also states that sustainability in the area of finance is becoming ever more important, both worldwide and for the Swiss financial centre.
Link
Report on international financial and tax matters 2017 - DE
Report on international financial and tax matters 2017 - FR
Summary
The UNEP FI's Principles for Positive Impact Finance are a set of high-level guidelines, designed to "provide a common yet flexible framework for the business and finance community to identify and develop positive impact activities, entities and projects".
Link
The Principles for Positive Impact Finance - A Common Framework to Finance the SDGs - EN
Summary
The Global Risks Report 2017 is a survey of 750 thought leaders on global trends and economic risks, which identifies environmental-related risks such as climate change as key challenges in the next years.
Link
Summary
The Thun Group of Banks' new Discussion Paper aims to gain further understanding of how the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights should be applied in the banking sector.
Link
Summary
The Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) invited individuals from business, science, society and the public sector to participate in a ‘Green Economy Dialogue Impulse Group’. Among others, the Group identifies an innovative financial sector as necessary to support investments in sustainable products and services and dedicated project partnerships between business and science.
Link
GO FOR IMPACT - Shaping the future of the Swiss Economy - DE
GO FOR IMPACT - Shaping the future of the Swiss Economy - FR
GO FOR IMPACT - Shaping the future of the Swiss Economy - IT
GO FOR IMPACT - Shaping the future of the Swiss Economy - EN
