Events

Increasing the contribution of banks is the major issue that I4CE proposes to address in a study published in September 2021. The objective is to overcome the classic opposition between the supporters of a Green Supporting Factor (for prudential relief due to the lower risk of green assets) and of a Penalizing Factor (to penalize activities that emit high CO2 levels because they are more exposed to transition risks).

The Paris Agreement has strengthened the call to the financial community to provide an essential contribution to climate action. To date, the focus of alignment efforts has principally been on what is financed – i.e. the individual projects or business activities. However, financial institutions of all types have recently been expanding the focus from the alignment of what is financed to also include an assessment of the alignment of who is financed. In response, in December 2020, marking the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement, and in the follow up of the Finance in Common Summit, UNEP FI and the Climate Action in Financial Institutions Initiative are convening an informal FI Group on Aligning Financial Chains with the Paris Agreement.

Looking at cities’ budget can steer change by tracking expenditures that contribute or are harmful to the ecological transition. For local authorities, it is particularly at the time of the vote on their budget that it is possible to question these expenditures and to direct them as much as possible towards the climate transition.

The Finance ClimAct project just completed its first phase (March 2019 – March 2021) with concrete and operational contributions to the implementation of French and European policies for sustainable finance. As the Renewed Strategy for Sustainable Finance of the EU is about to be released, we invite you to discuss the results of our actions to date, recent progress by the financial sector and challenges that the world of finance still faces in contributing to a low-carbon, climate-resilient economic recovery. This event is organized as part of the EU Green Week 2021.

Financial costs of climate change are rising, and investors need more transparent information to manage their physical risks. The European research project ClimINVEST brings together climate scientists and experts and financial actors to collaborate on improved tools and information.

The climate emergency, and the commitments of countries to support the objectives of the Paris Agreement have highlighted the need, in the very short term, to increase and reorient public and private funding towards the sectors necessary for the low-carbon transition, while reducing the flow of unfavorable climate finance.

As part of the EUKI-supported project “Landscape of climate finance: Mainstreaming climate finance in the CEE region”, this workshop aims to connect the global discussion on tracking climate-related investment and finance flows with recent work in the central and eastern European (CEE) Region.

As countries move forward to implement national climate strategies, National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) and more broadly Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), there is an increasing need to understand how to transform investment needs into capital raising and financing plans. Today countries in Central Europe are moving forward to collect the information and data to support this process.

Financial actors are now exposed to the impacts of climate change on the real economy, these impacts are observable and will intensify and the years to come. Financial institutions need to prepare for physical climate risks; however, they face a lack of relevant science-based information to make the decisions.

As countries move forward to implement national climate strategies, National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) and more broadly Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), there is an increasing need to understand how to transform investment needs into capital raising and financing plans. This webinar will look at the insights that tracking domestic climate investment and finance can provide to the climate policy and planning process and implementation. The recent results from the 2019 Edition of I4CE’s Landscape of Climate Finance in France and recent work by IKEM on the building sector in Germany will be presented and compared. Best practices in assessment of current investment levels and supporting an increase in sustainable financial flows will be explored as a basic building block of forward-looking analysis and production of investment plans as a part of national climate strategies.