Submitted by E.M. Williams on Thu, 20/10/2016 - 09:37
20 October 2016 – Today a group of leaders from 22 leading finance sector institutions met to review achievements made by the G20 to date, and to develop the priority actions needed to push forward real progress in creating a greener financial system.
Last month world leaders attending the G20 Summit in China highlighted the importance of ‘greening’ the financial system as an integral part of efforts to deliver stable, sustainable and inclusive growth. This marked a turning point, with Ministers of Finance and Central Bank Governors overseeing the G20’s work on green finance for the first time, signalling potentially far-reaching implications for banks, insurers, investors and other financial institutions.
Today’s briefing, hosted by Barclays in London, drew on the work of CISL’s Centre for Sustainable Finance, which acted as Knowledge Partner to the G20 Green Finance Study Group (GFSG), and included a briefing by the Bank of England’s Michael Sheren who is co-chair of that Group.
The CISL research report highlighted the important innovations taking place at the margins of the financial sector, and the imperative for critical changes in order to accelerate this into mainstream practice.
Andrew Voysey, Director of Finance Sector Platforms within the Cambridge Centre for Sustainable Finance, said:
"The research findings that we published in September for the G20 Green Finance Study Group revealed that whilst progress is being made, strong leadership from the finance sector is crucial in order to mainstream innovations that will create a truly green finance sector. Getting the support from G20 leaders signified a critical turning point in achieving this goal, and today’s meeting was a pivotal step forward in creating a real action plan to drive forward this change.”
Read the report: Environmental risk analysis by financial institutions – a review of global practice
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