AEB, CECA, INVERCO, UNACC and UNESPA have agreed to create the Centre for Responsible and Sustainable Finance in Spain (Finresp), with the aim of promoting and accelerating the fulfillment of financial commitments linked to the Sustainable Development Goals promoted by the United Nations through value propositions for the Spanish economy and its citizens.
This initiative is part of the United Nations project to create Financial Centres for Sustainability (FC4S) that act as an international network to support and promote green and sustainable finance. These centres provide an appropriate framework for financial institutions and other interested groups to discuss and foster innovative products and services with the common hallmark of sustainability. Under the umbrella of this United Nations project, nine Financial Centres for Sustainability have already been created in the European Union.
In Spain, the Centre for Responsible and Sustainable Finance (Finresp) was established with the aim of addressing, in particular, the difficulties and needs that the business fabric faces, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises in our country, in adapting to the requirements of the forthcoming Climate Change Act and the regulatory proposals on sustainable finance recently presented by the European Commission. With this objective, Finresp aims to promote innovative financing and investment solutions to facilitate this adaptation process for Spanish SMEs, thus incorporating them into the thriving sustainable finance movement that major global corporations have undertaken following the mandate of the Paris Agreement.
As will be recalled, the Paris Agreement, signed in 2015 by more than one hundred countries, established three specific actions on climate change: to keep the increase in global average temperature well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels; to increase the capacity to adapt to the adverse effects of climate change; and to raise financial flows to a level consistent with climate-resilient economic development. This last objective gives an indication of the importance that the promoters of the Paris Agreement have placed on financing this process. In Europe alone, the European Commission estimates that meeting these objectives will require additional annual investment of €177 billion between 2021 and 2030.
The founders of Finresp in Spain are also aware of the crucial role that the financial sector plays in transforming the economy toward more sustainable parameters, an issue they wish to share and promote in Spanish society. To this end, under the direction of the council formed by its founders, it seeks to become the appropriate forum where all interested parties—companies, financial institutions, climate change experts and other public and private market agents—can find innovative financial and investment solutions for businesses and share best practices. Likewise, the Centre in Spain
