On the day the United States announced its withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, considered the greatest environmental achievement in history, many of us felt our hearts sink. Unintentionally, on that 1 June, Mr Trump pushed European leaders to take the reins on one of the main items on the agenda of the last G20 meeting. The French President, Emmanuel Macron, and the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, have led the talks on climate change, as reflected in the joint statement by all the leaders of the remaining 19 countries that make up this group. All, except the U.S., reaffirmed their strong commitment and support for the Paris Agreement, which they described as “irreversible”.
Shortly after world leaders confirmed their commitment to curb climate change, the United Nations Environment Programme released the progress report on the advances achieved in terms of policies and the development of green finance products, around the initiatives proposed by the G20 Green Finance Study Group (GFSG) in September 2016. This document provides a good summary of how private capital is being mobilised towards green investment.
In addition to the G20, other institutions have been active on environmental matters over the past month, such as the TCFD (Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures), a task force created under the auspices of the Financial Stability Board. The TCFD has published its long-awaited guidance of recommendations to improve transparency in the management of business risks and opportunities in the face of climate change. This document aims for companies to provide financial information—clear, comparable and consistent—on the risks and opportunities posed by environmental deterioration. In addition, these guidelines will make it possible to identify who manages their climate risk proactively, so that the transition to a more sustainable economy becomes, in a very short time, a key element in companies’ competitiveness.
Beatriz Morilla, Head of CSR
