Trend Asia’s Post

"The World Bank Group is blind to the risks that captive coal poses to people and planet." Our finance campaigner Daniel Willis quoted in this Mongabay article on our latest research 👇 Our analysis, published last week with Trend Asia and Inclusive Development International, shows that the World Bank's private sector arm, IFC - International Finance Corporation, is indirectly financing captive coal in Indonesia. Read more here 👉 bit.ly/3LphzXo #MDBs #StopFundingFossilFuels #WorldBank

🌍 As we confront the urgent challenges of climate change and sustainable development, it's time to rethink how central banks manage their foreign exchange reserves. Here are five key points from recent insights shared by Serey Chea, Governor of the National Bank of Cambodia in The Banker 1️⃣ Massive Potential 🌱: Over $12 trillion in global foreign exchange reserves present a significant opportunity for financing sustainable development, yet currently less than 3% is invested sustainably. 2️⃣ Moral Imperative 🌟: The National Bank of Cambodia is leading by example, allocating more than 5% of its reserves to sustainability bonds, proving even smaller economies can impact global sustainability efforts. 3️⃣ Challenges in Yield 💰: Sustainability bonds often yield less due to the "greenium," posing challenges for reserve managers focused on traditional financial returns. 4️⃣ New Investment Strategies 🔄: Introducing new reserve management principles that consider environmental and social impacts can enhance the traditional focus on safety, liquidity, and return. 5️⃣ Local Impact 🏡: Encouraging the reinvestment of foreign reserves in local sustainable projects can increase the direct benefits to the investing country’s own citizens.

One more technical output from the #imf assessment of #kazakhstan #financial system: an analysis of #climate related #transition #risk in the financial sector conducted by Sha Yu (IMF, Senior Financial Sector Expert) and Sujan Lamichhane (IMF, Financial Sector Expert). “the climate risk analysis suggests Kazakhstani banks are exposed to significant transition risk from domestic and, more importantly, global climate policies. The risk is especially higher for carbon intensive sectors, such as fossil fuel extraction, refining, and electricity generation. Banks with large exposure to emissions-intensive sectors experience up to 30 percent additional losses under a disorderly 1.5°C scenario over a 5-to-7-year horizon, compared to the baseline.” Thanks to the staff at The Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan for Regulation and Development of Financial Market ( https://lnkd.in/dET5zYKu ) and The National Bank of Kazakhstan (https://lnkd.in/dX4k28qb ) for their excellent collaboration. https://lnkd.in/d92Aas7s

💧⚡ The latest edition of The World Bank's Central Asia Water and Energy Program (CAWEP) newsletter, marking the start of its fourth phase, is now live! Stay informed about how we are helping the region address #water and #energy issues by subscribing to our quarterly updates: https://lnkd.in/essUAG4Z #CAWEP is a partnership between the World Bank, the European Union, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom to improve the enabling environment for regional cooperation on water and energy security in #CentralAsia under a changing climate. European Commission SECO Economic Cooperation and Development Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Dinara Salieva #WBforCentralAsia

Amazing effort from all Multinational Developement Banks as a system to provide financing for climate adaptation and climate mitigation at scale. 2023: c 74bn in low & middle income countries and c 50bn in high income counties . And as a system we are also mobilising co-financing from public & private sources. 👏 Report 👇 #together #climatefinance European Investment Bank (EIB) European Investment Fund (EIF)

Taxonomy alignment and interoperability across markets is essential to unlock the full potential of global capital markets in the fight against climate change. As the world increasingly turns to sustainable finance, aligning national and international efforts is essential to foster cross-border investments and support the global sustainability agenda. IFC - International Finance Corporation, through its Sustainable Banking and Finance Network (SBFN), is proud to partner with the Central Bank of the Republic of Azerbaijan to develop a roadmap that will drive taxonomy alignment in the coming years. ➡️Discover more about the journey towards a global approach to sustainable finance taxonomies: https://lnkd.in/eeGQzGJQ #SustainableFinance #Taxonomy #ClimateFinance #SBFN #IFC Alfonso García Mora | Jamie Fergusson | Rong Zhang | Veronica Nyhan Jones | Rustam Tahirov | IFC Climate & Sustainability

How do economic and #geopolitical relations impact your global strategy? Understand where global foreign investment is flowing helps to predict consumer and business trends. #china #aramco #international #business #banking #fdi https://lnkd.in/gqDBcJpu

85% of banks are still open to financing new coal, according to the State of transition in the banking sector report authored by the TPI Centre. ⛰ 0% of banks are committed to phasing out all coal activities in line with 1.5°C warming   🛢 8% of banks are committed to ending project financing of new oil and gas fields  🌳 0% of banks are committed to ending all activities that finance deforestation by 2025  ⚖ 0% of banks have explicitly committed to decarbonise in line with Just Transition principles These are some of key findings in the report, which analysed 26 multinational banks in Asia, Europe and North America, 10 US super-regional banks and two US custodian banks. Want to go deeper? Access the Report. 👓Read it. ✍Use it. 📲Share it. https://lnkd.in/eBaqbF3H For the report, the TPI Centre used its inhouse #CarbonPerformance, as well as its award winning #NetZeroBankingAssessmentFramework (NZBAF), developed in consultation with Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) and Ceres, Inc. Also join us in our webinar: From words to action 📅Tuesday 29 October 2024 🕰9:00 London, 10:00 CET 17:00 Beijing, 18:00 Tokyo/Seoul, 20:00 Sydney 🔎Register: https://lnkd.in/eKA3jXGp The TPI Centre is the academic partner to the Transition Pathway Initiative (TPI) , an asset owner-led global initiative whose mission is to facilitate investors to address climate change. #StateofTransition #NetZero #TransitionFinance #CarbonPerformance #SustainableFinance #TransitionPlans #NetZeroBankingAssessmentFramework #TransitionRisks The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change & the Environment The authors of this report are: Valentin Jahn, Algirdas Brochard, Nelson Alejandro Diaz, Ákos Hajagos-Tóth and Simon Dietz

Transition Pathway Initiative (TPI) just released a report on the state of transition in the banking sector, analyzing 26 major banks in Asia, Europe & North America. Some takeways: 🔸 Most banks are still in the early stages of their transition to a low-carbon economy. This despite the fact that most banks now are publicly disclosing financed emissions. 🔻Only 19% of the banks' sectoral pathways are aligned with the below 2.0°C target of the Paris agreement, and only 3% with the 1.5°C target. 🔹A key aspect preventing banks from scoring higher when assessing their transition plan is that their commitments, targets and policies often cover only a limited portion of their business. Prioritized sectors include: electricity utilities, oil, gas and car manufacturing. This leaves gaps in high-emissions sectors such as airlines, cement, food, mining and steel. 🔻Most banks have limited or no commitment to phase out or reduce their financing of fossil fuels. 🔹Most banks acknowledge climate risk as a material risk and have established board-level oversight of it, but less than half have stated their actions to address it. Furthermore, only a minority link executive pay to climate-related performance. 🔸European and Japanese banks have on average set more decarbonisation targets than North American banks.

Here's another publication written, compiled, and edited by representatives of the UN Environment Programme Initiative United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), which hosts the Secretariat of the @Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA). They include Sarah Kemmitt, Orestis Velentzas, and @Daniel Storey. The document reflects the work of the NZBA Steel Working Group and consultations with nearly 20 other banks, and industry stakeholders. 🟠Key Summaries: ⏬⏬📈 1️⃣ Emissions scope & boundary:The Guidelines for Climate Target Setting for Banks are built around a sectoral approach to target setting that includes clients’ Scope 1, Scope 2, as well as Scope 3 emissions that are ‘significant’ to a given sector in scope for banks’ climate targets. 2️⃣ Financial scope: ▶️ Banks can use classification systems such as the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) or set economic activity thresholds, such as revenue generation from steelmaking, to define in-scope clients for steel climate targets. ▶️ Banks can set targets across their loan books as well as capital market products ▶️ Banks need to decide what indicator to use to determine the exposure to each in-scope client for their steel climate targets. 3️⃣ Benchmark pathways: The Guidelines for Climate Target Setting for Banks direct member banks to use widely accepted, science-based decarbonisation scenarios to guide members when setting individual long-term and intermediate targets that are aligned with the temperature goals of the Paris Agreement. Follow Integrated Africa Power (IAP) for more updates. #Sustainability #SteelSector #NetZeroBanking #Decarbonization #SustainableFinance #EnergyTransition