Highlights on another collaborative innovation in Green Finance
Bridging regions and channelling green capitals along the BRI
On 14th September, FC4S was honoured to attend the Third Plenary Meeting of the Green Investment Principles for the Belt and Road (GIP), held in Beijing with over 150 representatives from more than 40 global financial institutions and international organisations participating in person or virtually.
Initiated jointly by China’s central bank and the City of London in 2018, GIP membership has expanded to 40 signatories and 12 supporters from 15 countries and regions along the Belt and Road, representing a total volume of USD 49 trillion AUM. Similar to FC4S, members and key stakeholders of GIP spread over different regions of the world, engaging with emerging markets and providing support to boost a more balanced sustainable development globally. Members include leading international commercial banks, insurance companies, development banks, asset management organisations, and tech companies.
At the 3rd Plenary Meeting, its second Annual Progress Report “Stepping into the Net Zero Era” was published. This report captures the substantial progress across regions in the past year despite the challenges of COVID-19—another confidence boost for the community of international collaboration on sustainability.
From commitments to actions
The highlight from the GIP is its effort in coordinating and supporting members to take action. As the FC4S Assessment Programme, the annual assessment of GIP aims at helping organisations to review their progress on governance and strategy, risk assessment and management, corporate carbon footprint and environmental disclosure. At the conference, GIP Secretariat introduced the key findings from the Annual Report, recognising progress while giving honest feedback on the areas for further improvement.
In a similar way, the results of the recently submitted FC4S annual Assessment Programme will allow FC4S to inform and influence global and regional policy design and engage with other international bodies to develop and enhance enabling environments. This year, FC4S will prepare a report based on the preliminary outcomes of the 2021 Assessment Programme for consideration at COP26 and deliver the annual Global Report and personalised reports, which serve to create effective and inclusive strategies related to sustainable finance.
Thought leadership and Contribution beyond
Finally, the GIP annual conference set up a dedicated session on contributing to the global effort. It called for feedback on the Steering Committee draft action plan on COP26, which encourages all members to participate and contribute their share, upscaling the commitment and targets on achieving net-zero.
For its part, FC4S has launched the #RoadtoCOP26 Market Updates series to review the main market developments to drive green and sustainable finance and bring examples of supporting national and international guidance and regulations. You can find all Market Updates on the FC4S website and our LinkedIn, available in English, Spanish and Chinese. We will keep liaising closely with our members in pursuing Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement.
We congratulate the GIP Secretariat for the successful meeting and all the great work. We look forward to taking our close engagement with the GIP Secretariat a step further in the future and hope to deliver more resources to support our shared stakeholders and the international community in achieving the common goal of humanity: a Paris-aligned future.
