Sustainable-Finance

September 2014 – Barclays Chief Executive Antony Jenkins led a group of representatives of global banks meeting in Hong Kong on June 24, 2014 to explore ways that banks can work with companies to promote sustainable means of production, starting with agricultural commodities.

October 2014, report – The BEI’s focus to date has been driving sustainability standards into banking products and services by working with groups of leading customers. Its work in soft commodity supply chains has seen banks aligning with clients to develop commercially viable trade finance products and services that incentivise sustainable resource management. However, it has always been clear that those who regulate the financial system have a role to play in identifying and mitigating the potentially destabilising effects of environmental risks across the banking system as a whole.

November 2011 – Last Friday the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) approved a new report on ‘Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters for Climate Change Adaptation’. This is compelling reading both for those interested in climate change science, and for those working everyday to protect future economic and social activity.

April 2012 – Inherent uncertainty means that every statement made in relation to climate change risk must be caveated, but that is not an excuse for inaction.

June 2012 – In 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environmental Degradation were put on the international agenda at the first Earth Summit. Twenty years later nobody can ignore that human development and economic growth rely on healthy and resilient ecosystems but all too often we do, perhaps because it is easier to compartmentalise issues and believe that someone else will deal with the complexity.

November 2012 – A group of six Banking Environment Initiative (BEI) banks and six energy companies argue in this paper that using traditional investment valuation models is not always the best approach for valuing clean energy investments.

February 2013 – Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance is Japan's leading general insurance company, established in 1879. In this ClimateWise Thought Leadership article Kunio Ishihara, Chairman of the Board, discusses the role of insurers in supply chain resilience, and where climate change poses particular threats to these supply chains across Asian markets.

July 2013 – Exploring how the perception of risk affects customer responses to climate risk. How risk is perceived is key to whether people take action to manage risk. Advertisers use insights from behavioural science all the time but it is not often considered when looking at responses to unexpected events.

January 2014 – The first tangible result of the ‘Soft Commodities’ Compact has been produced. The BEI’s Sustainable Shipment Letter of Credit is a financing solution that can be used by banks to incentivise the international trade of sustainably produced commodities. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has confirmed it will offer preferential terms for this type of shipment to its partner banks, offering the potential reductions in the cost of capital.

May 2014 – Investors are uniquely placed to support economic activity that enhances the environment, sustains livelihoods and contributes to economic stability. And with thousands of signatories to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment, support for these values has never been stronger. The imperative now is to convert ambition into effective investment practice.