Frameworks for Positive Impact Finance: holistic impact analysis for corporates

This pioneering guide builds on last year’s launch of the first insurance industry statement of commitment to protect World Heritage Sites, supported by leading insurers and key stakeholders worldwide.

To develop the guide, UN Environment’s Principles for Sustainable Insurance Initiative (PSI) worked with its member insurers, WWF, UNESCO and ECOFACT.

The main aim is to provide guidance to insurers on how to prevent or reduce the risk of insuring and investing in companies or projects whose activities could damage World Heritage Sites, particularly in sectors such as oil and gas, mining, large-scale hydropower, logging, fishing, agriculture, plantations and large-scale infrastructure.

Over 200 insurance industry leaders and stakeholders from across the globe gathered in Munich last February to raise the industry’s ambition in tackling the world’s most pressing sustainability challenges.

At the Munich event, the first-ever insurance industry guide to manage environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks was launched. The event was co-organised by UN Environment’s Principles for Sustainable Insurance Initiative (PSI) and Allianz.

The pioneering guide is the result of a multi-year collaborative effort with leading insurers and key stakeholders through a global consultation process. It shows how insurers can develop a systematic approach to managing ESG risks such as climate change, environmental degradation, protected sites and species, animal welfare, human rights, controversial weapons, and corruption.

The guide includes heat maps indicating the level of potential ESG risk across lines of business and economic sectors—from agriculture, chemicals, defence, energy, healthcare and technology; to infrastructure, manufacturing, mining, real estate, transport and utilities.

Over 200 insurance industry leaders and stakeholders from across the globe gathered in Munich last February to raise the industry’s ambition in tackling the world’s most pressing sustainability challenges.

At the Munich event, the first-ever insurance industry guide to manage environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks was launched. The event was co-organised by UN Environment’s Principles for Sustainable Insurance Initiative (PSI) and Allianz.

The pioneering guide is the result of a multi-year collaborative effort with leading insurers and key stakeholders through a global consultation process. It shows how insurers can develop a systematic approach to managing ESG risks such as climate change, environmental degradation, protected sites and species, animal welfare, human rights, controversial weapons, and corruption.

The guide includes heat maps indicating the level of potential ESG risk across lines of business and economic sectors—from agriculture, chemicals, defence, energy, healthcare and technology; to infrastructure, manufacturing, mining, real estate, transport and utilities.

The European Commission’s Technical Expert Group on Sustainable Finance has just released its proposed ‘taxonomy’ to promote a common understanding of economic activities that contribute to EU goals on climate change and achieving the SDGs. The taxonomy effectively creates a standard for the low carbon and environmental sustainability performance of buildings and property, amongst other asset types. Financiers can use the taxonomy to channel capital toward assets that meet the standard so as to manage their risk and positively contribute to societal outcomes. The webinar will provide a brief review of the taxonomy as applied to buildings, as well as offer reflections from property investors in other parts of the world on how green finance is evolving in their regions and how the taxonomy may accelerate those changes.

Speakers:
Ursula Hartenberger, Global Head of Sustainability at RICS
Esther An, Chief Sustainability Officer at City Developments Limited
James McIntyre, Director of Capital Markets at New York State Homes and Community Renewal
Elodie Feller, Programme Lead, Investment at UN Environment Finance Initiative
Matthew Ulterino, Property Investment Project Coordinator at UN Environment Finance Initiative (Moderator)

Launch of the UNEP FI / GCA paper on adaptation finance.

Failure to adapt to climate change is one of the greatest risks to global economic growth and social stability. The Global Commission on Adaptation (GCA) was launched in October 2018 to accelerate adaptation action and support. At September’s UN Climate Summit in New York, Ban-Ki Moon, Bill Gates and Kristalina Georgieva will present the recommendations of the GCA's initial flagship report, which will make the case for prioritising climate change adaptation from the local to the global level. The UNEP Finance Initiative provided key inputs to the finance chapter of this report through a paper on adaptation finance, authored by Stacy Swann and Alan Miller of Climate Finance Advisors. Today, UNEP FI will launch the paper, which identifies barriers to increased financing for adaptation and presents six clear recommendations for the finance sector, including climate risk management, standards for data and metrics, capacity building, unlocking investment opportunities and delivering adaptation-related policies

This webinar, jointly hosted by UNEP FI and the European Banking Federation will provide insight on the joint project on the application of the EU Taxonomy for banks that wish to apply the taxonomy for banking activities on a voluntary basis.

Banking industry colleagues will share details of the simplified requirements of the Principles for Responsible Banking, providing the flexibility for any bank to endorse.

Following a survey led by Bentall Kennedy, REALPAC and the UNEP FI Property Working Group, a newly released report has captured findings from more than 40 leading property investors from Asia Pacific, Europe and North America with aggregate assets under management exceeding $1 trillion. The survey sought information on the extent to which investors see ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) factors as integral to investment and management decision-making, and attitude shifts toward ESG since the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. The results show that leading investors use ESG integration as part of risk management practices and a factor for increasing asset value; and that that knowledge about climate-related risks and the need to align practices with the Paris Climate Agreement objectives is growing. The webinar will present the key findings from the survey and discuss how UNEP FI is working to shift finance sector practices toward greater climate and ESG ambition.

Following a survey led by Bentall Kennedy, REALPAC and the UNEP FI Property Working Group, a newly released report has captured findings from more than 40 leading property investors from Asia Pacific, Europe and North America with aggregate assets under management exceeding $1 trillion. The survey sought information on the extent to which investors see ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) factors as integral to investment and management decision-making, and attitude shifts toward ESG since the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. The results show that leading investors use ESG integration as part of risk management practices and a factor for increasing asset value; and that that knowledge about climate-related risks and the need to align practices with the Paris Climate Agreement objectives is growing. The webinar will present the key findings from the survey and discuss how UNEP FI is working to shift finance sector practices toward greater climate and ESG ambition.

The banking industry represented by leading UNEP FI member banks worldwide have set out to develop global Principles for Responsible Banking that will define the banking industry’s role and responsibilities in aligning financing with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and Paris Agreement on Climate Change to help shape a sustainable future.

UNEP FI and the Founding Banks will be hosting an informative webinar to present and explain the Principles for Responsible Banking, including their target-setting and accountability requirements, and to get your feedback.

Energy efficiency is one of the most concrete actions financial institutions can take to advance their sustainability performance and tap into the trillions of USD of energy inefficient assets. It is also increasingly on the radar of financial regulators as they consider an adjustment of capital adequacy requirements for certain types of energy efficient financial products. Real estate, which is the largest source of global stored wealth, is strongly affected by energy efficiency. With more than 230 billion USD of new investment every year, energy efficiency is almost as large a market as renewable energy.

The UNEP FI Energy Efficiency Finance Platform will provide for an exchange of information between financial institutions across banking, investment and insurance and across distinct economic sectors such as real estate and industry. It builds on and is synergetic with existing UNEP FI projects in scaling up energy efficiency finance, such as ongoing collaborations at EU level (EEFIG) and in the G20 (G20 EEFTG).

The webinar will formally launch the platform, introduce its working mode, core members, and offer an opportunity for financial institutions to jointly discuss how to bring the energy efficiency finance market to further scale.

The webinar will introduce the newly launched Positive Impact investment framework for property owners and asset/investment managers. This is part of a suite of resources from UNEP FI to address the SDG financing gap and shift financing practices so that environmental, social and economic impacts are fully considered, intended and measured in investment activities.

The webinar will introduce the newly launched Positive Impact investment framework for property owners and asset/investment managers. This is part of a suite of resources from UNEP FI to address the SDG financing gap and shift financing practices so that environmental, social and economic impacts are fully considered, intended and measured in investment activities.

Human activities are accelerating environmental changes, notably in the form of climate change, pollution, and habitat loss. These environmental changes can lead to adverse consequences for businesses and for the financial institutions that provide services to them as the conditions for economic activities change. Financial institutions wishing to understand and assess their exposure to these risks need comprehensive and systematic information on how businesses depend on the environment and the consequences they face when that relationship is disrupted by environmental change.

For this reason the Natural Capital Finance Alliance, funded by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and the MAVA Foundation, has come up with tools and insights to help practitioners identify material natural capital risks and opportunities within their portfolios and integrate these considerations into financial decision making. The webinar will provide an overview of the recently launched ENCORE tool (Exploring Natural Capital Opportunities, Risks and Exposure). It also marks the official online launch of the NCFA’s latest report produced by PwC, which applies the ENCORE tool to develop a natural capital assessment framework for enhanced portfolio risk management in banks.

This webinar helps financial institutions understand how to apply a holistic positive impact lens to portfolios or products for corporates with unspecified use of proceed via a recently released Model Framework.
This Framework serves as a basis for a new Working Group on holistic impact analysis, which brings together financial institutions to test the framework with real cases and share learnings.
The Model Frameworks are the tools through which the PI Principles are interpreted and implemented. They are developed by the PI Initiative to guide the delivery of Positive Impact financial products and for ongoing portfolio monitoring. Financial institutions can use them to develop or adapt their own frameworks. Auditors, analysts and other stakeholders can use them to verify or provide opinions on the PI nature of financial products.

Speakers:
Marie-Aimee Boury, Managing Director, Impact Based Finance, Société Générale
Careen Abb, Lead, Positive Impact Initiative, UNEP FI
Jérôme Lavigne-Delville, Senior Manager, Catalyzing Financial Innovation for the SDGs, UN Global Compact

The Technical Expert Group on Sustainable Finance set up by the Commission in July 2018 has launched a call for feedback on EU action to develop a unified EU-wide classification system – or taxonomy – for environmentally sustainable economic activities.

The call for feedback aims to help the Technical Expert Group engage with a broad range of stakeholders and experts and will close on 22 February 2019.
Find out more: https://ec.europa.eu/info/publications/sustainable-finance-taxonomy_en

This Webinar will provide background and guidance on the feedback process to support stakeholders and experts interested in contributing.

Presented by:

• Martin Spolc, Head of Unit, DG Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union, European Commission
• Nathan Fabian, Chief Responsible Investment Officer, PRI, Chair of the TEG Taxonomy Working Group
• Elodie Feller, Investment Programme Lead, UNEP FI, Observer in the Technical Expert Group

UNEP FI has pioneered work on Positive Impact finance, and TCFD implementation for investors, banks and insurers.

Hear from the leaders at UNEP FI about next steps in SDG finance, as well as in TCFD implementation, and how the bigger picture in sustainable finance is evolving.


A stocktake of SDG Finance

Where are we at with SDG financing? Latest UN reports (HLPF, September 2018) suggest we may not be on track overall with SDGs. UNEP FI & a range of partners believe that results-driven – i.e. impact focused – analysis needs to be consolidated and mainstreamed to meaningfully connect the private and finance sector to the SDG agenda. The Principles for Positive Impact provide a meta-framework with a holistic definition of impact to complement and promote convergence among the growing body of impact-oriented methodologies and standards.



Next steps in TCFD implementation

How can financial institutions better understand, assess, and prepare for climate change, across meteorological, technological, and regulatory domains? How can they do so in a forward-looking, scenario-based manner, that allows them to respond to the FSB TCFD? How are they coalescing and organising on UNEP FI platforms to jointly develop answers? UNEP FI has led several pilot-projects on TCFD implementation, and here, we share the results and outcomes.