New rankings on banking performance regarding climate, and upcoming webinar on new financing pact

Hi everyone,

Firstly, Happy International Women's Day! Today we celebrate the incredible women who overcome challenges, discrimination, and obstacles every day, and inspire us to create a brighter future.

I am writing this from Vienna where I am ahead of the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens board meeting. I’ve been on Ban Ki-moon’s board since he stood as the 8th Secretary-General of the UN. I look forward to providing a recap over the next couple of days, in the meantime I wanted to take some time out to come with some quick mid-week updates.

1/ Webinar tomorrow - Global Financing Pact

Climate finance was central to all discussions that took place at last year’s COP27 – from holding governments accountable for not delivering the promised finance goal of USD 100 billion per year, to reforming multilateral development banks, to addressing challenges in the mobilization of finance from the private sector.

One of COP27’s key outcomes was to develop financing mechanisms for loss and damage. While technical work on a loss and damage fund has now started, the question of where financing should come from remains – for loss and damage, but also for pandemic preparedness, education, and other broader development issues, as well as funding for climate mitigation and adaptation efforts. In that context, French President Macron expressed his support for the Bridgetown Initiative, put forth by Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados, which details a reform of the international financial architecture in order to deliver on both climate and development goals for both low-income and vulnerable countries. To that end, he announced a Summit for New Global Financing Pact to be held on June 22nd and 23rd in Paris. 

There is not yet much public information about this summit, but we consider it a major opportunity to move the need on development and climate financing. In that context, I’m writing to inform and invite you all to a briefing session that Global Citizen will be hosting for all our civil society partners that want to learn more about the Paris financing summit.

We want to make sure that all CSOs and individuals interested can follow this process and hopefully also work closely with us in securing commitments and progress. To that end, we have arranged a briefing on The Road to Paris on Thursday March 9 at 9am EST / 3pm CET. 

If you’re keen to attend, please make sure to register ahead of time here, and pass on to anyone else you think may be interested. 

Also, feel free to share the news and repost our tweeter announcement.  

2/ US Mid-Tier Banks Have A Pivotal Role In Tackling Climate Change: New Report

Check out my latest article covering a new report highlighting that it's time to step up and tackle climate change. The study showed that only 18% of 18 mid-tier banks surveyed have set explicit net-zero targets, and less than half are using any climate risk management tools.

However, these banks have the power to drive significant change by implementing sustainable policies and practices across their operations, as well as encouraging their clients and stakeholders to do the same.

The report calls for more science-based targets to reduce actual emissions rather than relying on offsetting to achieve their goals, ultimately including their scope 3 emissions - emissions financed by banks through lending and underwriting.

It will be crucial for banks of all sizes to both evaluate climate risk as part of their investment decision-making and to establish ambitious emission reduction targets. Check out my article here.

That’s all for today, and I’ll be back with the updates Friday!

Warmly

Mick