New financial alliance to reach net zero emissions

Press release on behalf of cop25 and COP26 climate champions, 21 April 2021

Mark Carney, the UN’s Race to Zero campaign and the COP26 presidency launch a net-zero financial partnership with the largest banks, asset owners, asset managers and insurers around the world.

The industry-led, UN-convened Net Zero Banking Alliance jointly launched by the UNEP Finance Initiative and the Sustainable Markets Initiative’s Financial Services Working Group was also announced today.

On the eve of President Biden’s Climate Summit of Heads of State, Mark Carney (Financial Advisor to the PRIME MINISTER of the United Kingdom for COP26 and UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance), and in partnership with the champions of UNFCCC climate action, the UN campaign “Race to Zero”, and the COP26 Presidency, join U.S. Presidential Climate Envoy John Kerry and U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to launch a global alliance that brings together zero-emission finance initiatives in an industry-wide strategic forum: The Glasgow Net Zero Financial Alliance (GFANZ).

GFANZ will work to mobilize the trillions of dollars needed to build a zero-emission global economy and meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. In addition, it will provide a forum for strategic coordination among the leadership of institutions across the financial sector to accelerate the transition to a net-zero emissions economy. All GFANZ initiatives require signatories to set intermediate and long-term goals aligned with science to reach net zero by 2050, in line with the criteria of the Race to Zero initiative. These objectives are complemented by short-term goals and action plans determined by members.

The Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), led by the sector and sponsored by the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), is the latest partnership. The NZBA brings together an initial cohort of 43 of the world’s leading banks, and aims to meet the banking sector’s ambition to align its climate commitments with the goals of the Paris Agreement, with collaboration, rigor and transparency.

The NZBA joins the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative and the UN-convened Net Zero Asset Owners Alliance.

State Street Global Advisors, Trillium Asset Management and Coutts also join the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative today, bringing its membership to 87, with assets under management representing more than $37 trillion. The Paris Aligned Investment Initiative also joins the Race to Zero. The 37 members of the Net Zero Asset Owners Alliance, with more than $5.7 trillion in assets under management, are demonstrating their ambition by already setting science-aligned targets for 2025.

These alliances will soon be joined by some of the world’s leading insurers and reinsurers in the soon-to-be-created Net Zero Insurance Alliance (NZIA).

By bringing together the major net-zero financing initiatives, both existing and new, in the Race to Zero into an industry-wide strategic forum, GFANZ will lead the strategic and technical coordination of the steps companies need to take to align with a net-zero future.

Source: UNFCCC