Key points
Investors:
- Despite the progress observed, 60% of asset owners still have no climate policy.
- European asset management companies are the best equipped to implement policies that incorporate climate change and address the risks it entails.
- Investors could do more to raise the issue of climate when entrusting managers with mandates.
- Investors in the United States and in Asia are, on average, behind the curve.
- It would be appropriate for comparative studies to include investors from Africa, whose financial clout is likely to significantly increase.
- Scenario analysis methodology must improve to measure risk on the one hand, and prepare portfolio alignment with a 2°C target on the other.
- The efficacy of the levers employed by investors (exclusion, corporate engagement) could also be increased.
- Investment in green assets is contingent on the creation of suitable assets and investment products.
Banks
Banks possess considerable power to orient the economy towards a model consistent with climate
targets. As of 2018, these institutions remain self-contradictory:
- Banks see the low-carbon transition primarily in terms of opportunities for creating lending and financial services.
- By contrast, they are less conscious of the risks associated with climate change: ’brown‘ financing, dedicated to high emitting activities, shows no sign of decline.
- At the institutional level, many banks continue to finance brown assets while simultaneously developing green financing activities.
- European banks are the most advanced, with French banks in the lead.
- The inauguration of policies for aligning on 2°C targets with a long-term view and covering all sectors of the economy ought to resolve current contradictions.
- Banks could also further their dialogue with clients on climate-related topics, both to assist them in transitioning their business models and to collect more specific information.
- The major global banks, which constitute the industry’s most scrutinised area, have begun to take partial action on climate issues. There exist, however, some 25,000 banks worldwide. What is the best way to get them involved? Oversight by central banks, which have begun expressing concern about climate change (see below), could serve as a critical multiplier.
- Public banks also have a role to play as leadership examples to catalyse action in the banking sector.
Development Banks
- Development banks are, on the whole ahead of other financial actors as concerns the proportion of financing devoted to climate action. A next step consists of aligning the entirety of their activities with climate targets.
- The joint commitments made in late 2017 should further increase their action going forward.
- A catalysing role in leveraging financial systems and actors is one of their goals, but remains limited in scope, with a ratio of 1.5 at most.
- To improve leverage ratios, development banks must expand higher-risk financing instruments such as equity participation and guarantees.
- Banks could also multiply the financing platforms they have begun creating to address both the needs of countries where they operate and those of investors who are still reluctant to make commitments, particularly in emerging and developing countries.
- The New Climate Economy considers development banks to be key in achieving sustainable growth, and its 2018 report calls for their means to be doubled, for a total of USD 100 billion annually.