ClimateALIGN

ClimateALIGN monitors portfolio net-zero alignment by 2050 

In 2015, 196 world leaders established the Paris Agreement, which commits to limiting global warming to well-below 2°C with efforts to restrict warming to 1.5°C by 2100. To meet this target, regulators and the global economy must reduce or offset the amount of GHG produced through its economic activities. This is ultimately the target of net-zero, the purpose of which is to balance the entire amount of GHG released with the amount removed from the atmosphere by 2050. As financial institutions including banks, pension funds, insurance companies, asset managers and sovereign wealth funds, are responsible for managing and deploying a significant percentage of the world’s capital, they inevitably play a key role in driving this change.

This has led to the challenging task of creating an implementation roadmap to reduce global GHG emissions. Global standard-setting bodies have since published guidance on how to make sense of the risks and opportunities associated with climate change. They have sought to help financial institutions better understand how their investment choices and strategy impact the climate, known as ‘portfolio alignment’, with organizations such as the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) publishing global guidance on alignment metrics.