Recent headlines have reminded us how exposed the economy remains when energy supply depends on fragile geopolitical balances. As tensions around the Strait of Hormuz disrupted international transport, oil prices surged and oil majors’ stocks rallied, but we were also reminded of how quickly geopolitical risk can translate into inflation, industrial costs and downside risks to global economic growth.

For European countries, the energy transition is not only an instrument of decarbonisation. It also feeds a broader resilience strategy: reducing exposure to imported volatility, strengthening domestic capacity and building stronger foundations for competitiveness.

Yet, the transition should not replace one dependency with another. A system excessively exposed to imported rare minerals or foreign technology (chips, cloud capacity, AI models), which mostly come from other world regions, would be equally fragile and unsustainable.

In these evolving geopolitical dynamics, sustainability is increasingly inseparable from matters of innovation, resilience and sovereignty. One strategy is to manage short term benefits. Another one is to build for structural leadership over the next generation.

Finance can play a central role in directing capital toward the systems, infrastructure and technologies that will define tomorrow’s durable competitiveness.

At SSF, this perspective informs several activities of our 2026 agenda, which you can browse here.

Swiss News

• On 27 March, the State Secretariat for International Finance SIF reaffirmed Switzerland’s commitment to sustainable financial services in a policy paper. In this paper SIF emphasizes Switzerland’s commitment  to reach net-zero by 2025 and describes different areas of action.
• On 1 April, the Federal Council opened a public consultation on the new Federal Act on Sustainable Corporate Governance (NUFG). This constitutes the counter-proposal to the popular initiative "For responsible large companies – protecting human rights and the environment" (KVI 2.0). The consultation period runs until 9 July.
• AMAS published a position paper on their stance around sustainable finance. It highlights their aim to improve Switzerland’s position as a hub for Sustainable Finance and reach the climate goals for the year 2050 aligning with the plan of the federal council.

European News

• The Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) responded to the European Commission’s open call regarding the amendment of the update of the Energy Union and climate action. The PRI demands “an adequate 2040 climate target to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, robust National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) to specify targets and implementation measures, and sectoral roadmaps with investment-useful data”. Another response comes from the Third Generation Environmentalism Ltd. (E3G), demanding the maintenance of a stable framework, simplified implementation, and an investment boost. 

International News

• A standalone nature standard will not be developed at this stage by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). Instead, the ISSB will propose nature-related disclosure requirements in the form of an IFRS Practice Statement that complements IFRS S1 and IFRS S2, aiming to minimise disruption by embedding guidance within the existing standards framework. An exposure draft for public consultation is expected to be published in October 2026.
• Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney released a new strategy to protect Canada’s natural environment. It is based on three pillars; Protecting Nature in Canada, Building Canada Well, and Valuing Nature and Mobilizing Capital. To foster these pillars, Canada will be investing $3.8 billion focussing on measurable projects by 2030.

Market News

• The Ethos Foundation’s annual reports on the Swiss and International Ethos Engagement Pools summarize the 700+ engagement activities of their members. Among other results, an increase in the number of companies setting science-based targets (SBTi) for GHG emission reduction was noted.
• In a new article Wuest Partner emphasizes the transitory climate risks and its implications for the real estate sector and draws three regulatory scenarios. Although the real estate sector emits a notable share of the GHG into the atmosphere, effective regulations, engaged investors, and technological progress push the transition towards net-zero. Such a transition gains importance as  physical climate risks become more material and affect investments, costs, revenues, and valuations.
• SBA and HSLU published a market study on the adoption of the new self-regulation on ESG integration. They found that 85% of the banks participating in the study follow the extended standards from 1 January 2026. Additionally, by complying with the existing MiFID-I regulation the remaining 15% are indirectly following the self-regulation as well.
• The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) prepared an open consultation on state of nature measurement until 4 June 2026. The project is in collaboration with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and Science Based Targets Network (SBTN) and is summarized in a discussion paper presenting their proposal.
• UNEP FI designed a new tool, the Climate Pathways Navigator, enabling users to gain sectoral and regional insights based on targeted climate scenario data. It supports financial institutions in understanding specific emissions, leading to better informed decisions regarding decarbonisation targets.
• Experts from the IPCC are working on a Methodology Report for Carbon Dioxide Removal Technologies, Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CDRT-CCUS) that should be available to governments by 2027. It will provide a detailed understanding of the state of the art of the technologies and a scientific foundation for estimations.
• UBS Asset Management has launched a tool to restore voting rights to their institutional clients. The new proxy-voting offer enables institutional clients to vote on specific agenda items if wished so by the clients and thus makes it possible to them to follow their stewardship activities.

We are happy to welcome the following organisation as new SSF member:

• Climeworks (Service Provider)

The full list of our members and network partners, now standing at 251 can be found here.  

• Survey by UZH and ZHAW on Artificial Intelligence in Sustainable Finance: The two universities are currently conducting an industry survey on the potential of “AI and Digital Assets for Sustainable Finance”. Contributing to the survey it is a unique opportunity to contribute to shaping future academic research agenda on these topics. Answer here.
• Sentiment analysis of corporate disclosures is among the most promising AI applications for sustainable finance. A recent paper by Prof. Markus Leippold (UZH) however demonstrated how these systems may fail, because the chosen disclosure language may materially skew results. As quickly as the technology evolves, so must the guardrails to keep it reliable.

Events at Climate Week Zurich co-organized by SSF or with SSF participation:

• 4 May 2026, 14:00 - 18:00h: Enabling Resilience: The Role of Finance to Scale for Climate Adaptation (UBS)
• 4 May 2026, 16:00 - 18:00h: Making Climate Transition Work:  What Companies Need to Know, Climate Week Zurich (Ecofact, UN GCNSL, SSF)
• 5 May 2026, 13:30 - 15:30h: Unlocking Sustainability with Data and AI (EY)
• 5 May 2026, 15:00 - 18:00h: Monetizing nature-related risks (sustainserv)
• 6 May 2026, 16:30 - 20:00h: The Data Is In: How Nature-Related Risks Are Reshaping Regulatory Reporting (MSCI, WWF)
• 7 May 2026, 16:00 - 19:00h: Sustainable and Climate Finance - From Roots to Innovation (SSF, AMAS, Building Bridges, SBA, UZH)

• 28 April 2026: Market Tools #2: Double Materiality Assessment, Geneva (SSF & SFG)
• 5 May 2026: TISFD Peer Learning Webinar on System-Level Risks, Online (TISFD)
• 12 May 2026: Sustainable Financing Platform Meeting (Members only), Online (SSF)
• 19 May 2026: Sustainable Investing Platform Meeting (Members only), Online (SSF)
• 20 May 2026: Nature Exchange Group: In-person session (Members only), Zurich (SSF)
• 27 May 2026: ESG-Reporting Konferenz 2026 - Vom Reporting zur Resilienz, Rotkreuz (HSLU)
• 2 June 2026: Save the Date - Sustainable Real Estate Roundtable: Path to Net-Zero (Members only), Online (SSF)
• 9 June 2026: Save the Date - SSF Investing Market Study 2025 Launch Webinar, Online (SSF)
• 18 June 2026: SSF Annual Conference 2026, Bern (SSF)

Further events are listed on the SSF website.