Frankfurt, Geneva, Shenzhen, Toronto and Zurich join international network of financial centres for sustainability

As world leaders gathered in Paris for the One Planet Summit, hosted by France’s President Emmanuel Macron, five new cities – Frankfurt, Geneva, Shenzhen, Toronto and Zurich – have joined the International Network of Financial Centres for Sustainability.

Mobilizing the world’s financial centres will be essential to make progress on climate change and sustainable development, and the latest cities to join add momentum to this process.

Launched in Casablanca on 28 September 2017, founding members of the network include Astana, Casablanca, Dublin, Hong Kong, London, Luxembourg, Milan, Paris, Qatar, Shanghai and Stockholm. All have committed to harnessing their financial expertise to drive action on climate change and sustainable development. Financial centre leaders are gathering in Paris to outline practical ways that they can work together.

Financial centres are key locations in the economy where banking, investment and insurance markets are concentrated. This clustering of expertise and resources can also help to scale up the finance required to implement the Paris Agreement on climate change and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

2017 has been marked by positive signs of progress. Issuance of green bonds exceeded US$100bn for the first time; the total for 2016 was US$82bn. A growing number of countries and regions are taking strategic action to promote sustainable finance, notably China, EU, Italy, Morocco and Singapore. According to a new report released by UN Environment, Accelerating Financial Sector Action on Sustainable Development, more than 20 financial centres are now active in green and sustainable finance.

As host of the meeting which launched the Network, Said Ibrahimi, CEO of the Casablanca Finance City Authority said: “As a leading African financial centre and one of the initiators of the network for sustainability, CFCA is strongly committed to strengthening green finance in Africa, which has today the greatest potential to make massive leapfrogs in sustainable development.”

The new Network is open to all financial centres and its objective is to “exchange experience and take common action on shared priorities to accelerate the expansion of green and sustainable finance”. It will do this by raising awareness, strengthening market practice and promoting market expansion. It will also share experience on financial innovation, building capacity and engaging in dialogue with policymakers.

The Network is convened by UN Environment. Nick Robins, Co-Director of the UN Environment Inquiry, said: “Leading financial centres are now showing how they can contribute to making the green transition cheaper, faster and smoother.”

The Network’s inaugural meeting will be in Milan on 12-13 April 2018.

Original source: UNEP
Published on 13 December 2017