Finance sector

January 27, 2021

Why your banking habits matter for the climate

Jocelyn Timperley

Javier Hirschfeld/Getty Images

Behaviour Change, Carbon, Climate Action, Finance sector

It might not be the most obvious way of reducing your carbon footprint, but how you save, invest and give away your money can make a difference to the climate.

January 26, 2021

Asset manager BlackRock threatens to sell shares in worst climate polluters

Jasper Jolly

Ralph Orlowski/Reuters

Climate Change, Carbon Neutral, Finance sector

BlackRock, the world’s biggest investment fund manager, has threatened to sell shares in the worst corporate polluters in a bid to support the goal of net zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.

January 18, 2021

HSBC in dock over climate change policy

Mtaylor848/Wikimedia Commons

Climate Change, Finance sector, Investment

The Jesuits in Britain are one of 15 institutional investors with a combined US$2.4 trillion in assets under management that have filed a climate change resolution at HSBC, alongside 117 individual shareholders.

January 13, 2021

$7 trillion asset manager BlackRock makes climate change central to its investment strategy for 2021

Jessica Dickler

Climate Change, ESG, Finance sector

In an annual letter to CEOs earlier in 2020, BlackRock Chairman and CEO Larry Fink said “climate change has become a defining factor in companies’ long-term prospects … But awareness is rapidly changing, and I believe we are on the edge of a fundamental reshaping of finance.”

January 12, 2021

Making sense of banks’ climate targets

Getty Images

Climate Change, Finance sector

Financial firms produce very few greenhouse-gas emissions directly, aside from those associated with keeping the lights on and the computers whirring. But the picture changes dramatically when you add “financed emissions”, those associated with a firm’s lending and investing activities. Figures from the few banks and asset managers that disclose them suggest that financed emissions are 100 to 1,000 times bigger than operational ones.

January 3, 2021

Christine Lagarde expected to make ECB a climate change pioneer

Martin Arnold and Alexander Vladkov

Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images

Climate Action, Europe, Finance sector

Christine Lagarde is expected to make the European Central Bank a pioneer in fighting climate change by slashing its purchases of bonds issued by fossil fuel companies and other heavy carbon emitters, according to a Financial Times poll of economists.

December 17, 2020

Federal Reserve joins global group focused on fighting climate change

Sarah O’Brien

Jim Lo Scalzo | Reuters

Climate Change, Finance sector, risk

The Federal Reserve has made a move that cements its nod to the risk that climate change could pose to the financial system. In a statement released Tuesday, the central bank said it has formally joined a global peer group that is addressing climate’s impact on finance. The Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System, as it’s called, was formed in 2017 and now has 83 members from around the world. The U.S. already had been an informal participant for more than a year.

December 5, 2020

How a Climate ‘Stress Test’ Can Foresee Collapsing Banks

Avery Ellfeldt,

Susan Candelario Alamy

Banks, Climate Change, Economic Impacts, Finance sector, Stress Test

Economists, environmentalists and advisers to President-elect Joe Biden warn that global warming could spur that next catastrophe. The climate finance proponents among them argue that major lenders should be required to undergo climate-related stress testing before it’s too late.

December 3, 2020

Where do carbon emissions go when they’re no longer in your portfolio?

Maarten Vleechhouwer and Fiona Spuler

Carbon, Finance sector, GHG emissions, Paris Agreement

There is growing hope that the financial sector can contribute to decarbonizing the economy and help prevent dangerous levels of anthropogenic climate change. But aligning financial portfolios with the Paris Agreement, or lowering a portfolio’s carbon footprint alone, won’t be enough to actually contribute to real world emissions reductions. After all, where do emissions go when they are no longer in your portfolio?

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