Is Green the new Black?

Green is high on the agenda of the latest initiatives around sustainable finance. Be it the European Taxonomy that aims to define activities classified as green investments, calls for fossil fuel divestment from the New York City and London Mayors or the new Global Green Bond Partnership – all of them revolve around humanity’s most pressing challenge, climate change. This comes as no surprise considering that the IPCC is now urgently calling on governments to limit global warming to a maximum of 1.5 degrees, knowing all too well that even keeping the temperature increase below 2 degrees is a already major challenge.

Yet, creating a sustainable world requires action in many different areas: good governance and greater diversity lay the foundation for long-term beneficial decisions, both in governments and companies. Respecting human rights - in the supply chain or in investments – helps to create societies that allow people to live a life in dignity. Both topics were covered in recent SSF events that supported our members in establishing sound sustainability practices. Even though climate change is the most urgent issue we face, it is important to keep a broad perspective on sustainability. In fact, this may even help us combat climate change most effectively.

Kind regards,

Sabine Döbeli

CEO Swiss Sustainable Finance

SSF activities

Regulatory and market news

SSF and sustainable finance in the media

New members joining SSF

Join these events

New reports & studies

SSF event in Ticino: Gender equality in the financial sector

twentyfifty and SSF human rights workshop

SSF and Convergence event: Blended Finance information session and networking breakfast

Have a look at the event summary and images on the SSF website.

SSF presents education tools in Lugano and Zurich

Read more about these and other SSF activities

Back to top

Swiss news

• Zurich Insurance has become one of the few investors to meet the 1% target set a year ago, fulfilling a challenge issued by former United Nations climate negotiator Christiana Figueres at last year’s PRI in Person event. 
• According to the second edition of the Global Green Finance Index (GGFI), Swiss financial centers continue to rank high in a global comparison, with Zurich in the top quintile, and Geneva in the second quintile. Both centers improved their absolute score for quality and depth of green finance.
• During the autumn session of the Swiss Parliament, different parliamentary items of business referred to sustainable finance, including a motion instructing the Federal Council to develop a climate strategy for the Swiss financial market, and a motion asking the Federal Council to enact regulations prohibiting Swiss financial service providers from granting loans to projects that are particularly harmful to the climate.

International initiatives

• The Climate Bonds Initiative released an updated version of its Climate Bond Taxonomy to include new sectors and reviewed definitions.
• A statement by the Financial Centres for Sustainability (FC4S) network, of which Geneva and Zurich are a members, set out 10 principles for shared language in green and sustainable finance. The statement was published ahead of the G7 Environment, Energy and Ocean Ministers’ meeting.
• New York and London mayors Bill de Blasio and Sadiq Khan called for cities to divest from fossil fuels in a special editorial published in The Guardian.
• Announced at this year’s PRI in Person and the Global Climate Action Summit held in San Francisco, the newly launched Investor Agenda provides comprehensive guidance for investors to transition the world’s financial capital to low-carbon opportunities.
• A further initiative launched at the Global Climate Action Summit was the Global Green Bond Partnership, which aims to support and coordinate efforts of sub-national entities, private companies, and financial institutions to accelerate the issuance of green bonds.
• The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has announced a framework to spur the development of green finance in Hong Kong, aiming to promote products including green bonds, indices and derivatives.
• The first meeting of the Liechtenstein Initiative: For a Financial Sector Commission on Modern Slavery took place in New York on 20-21 September 2018. The goal of the Commission is to develop a concrete roadmap to accelerate action by the financial sector in combatting the modern slavery and human trafficking industry.

Market trends

• More than 130 founding signatories, including financial institutions from around the world, have launched the Tobacco Free Finance Pledge. Signatories collectively represent USD 8.8 trillions of capital, including assets under management of over USD 6.8 trillion, corporate loan books of over USD 1.9 trillion, and insurance premiums of over USD 180 billion.
• The European Investment Bank issued its first Sustainability Awareness Bond early September 2018. The EUR 500 million bonds demonstrate a strong commitment to unlocking finance for high impact projects in sustainable sectors beyond climate.
• The World Bank launched its first blue bond to raise awareness of the importance of ocean resources.
• The Transition Pathway Initiative (TPI), backed by asset owners and investors with over £7 trillion ($9 trillion) of assets under management, has shown in new research that cement and steel companies have made only modest progress in managing climate change and reducing their carbon emissions over the past year.
• Europe’s green-bond sales have surged 18 percent this year, a stark contrast to the 10 percent slowdown seen in the overall credit market.
• A government-appointed commission recommended that the Norwegian wealth fund keep oil stocks. 

Back to top

• 10 October, Corriere del Ticino, Coinvolgere di più le donne
• 2 October, Radiotelevisione svizzera, Interview and article with Alberto Stival
• 2 October, NZZ, Des Portfolios Kern: Wenn Anleger genau wissen wollen, was ihr Geld anrichtet (subscription required)
• September edition, Schweizer Bank, Special feature on sustainability including SSF market study (subscription required)
• 30 September, Le Temps, Les banques peuvent mieux faire dans la finance durable
• 19 September, NZZ, Schweizer Millionäre sind bei Geldanlagen Nachhaltigkeits-Muffel
• 26 August, Le Temps, Les 10 stars suisses de la finance durable (featuring Sabine Döbeli and SSF board members)
• 26 August, Le Temps, L'investissement responsable n'est plus une niche
• 24 August, Le Temps, Les multiples formes de la finance durable
• 13 August, Tagesanzeiger, So legen Sie Geld an, ohne Ihr Karma zu trüben
• 13 August, Schweizer Bank, Jetzt soll es die Finanzindustrie richten
• 9 August, NZZ, Tücken beim Anlegen in nachhaltige Indizes

Visit our website for more articles and regular updates

Back to top

We are happy to welcome the following organisations as new SSF members:

• Carnot Capital AG
• CFA Society Switzerland
• Haute Ecole de Gestion Genève
• Record Currency Management Limited
• Union Bancaire Privée
• Yova AG

Upcoming SSF Events

• 31 October 2018, SSF Event, Private Wealth Management et Durabilité. Nouvelles directives MIFID: Quelles opportunités pour la Suisse?, Geneva
• Save the date: 19 June 2019, SSF Annual event, Berne
  

Other Events

• 25 October 2018, Swiss International Finance Forum, Zurich
• 22-26 October 2018, UNCTAD, 2018 World Investment Forum, Geneva
• 30 October 2018, Swiss Insurance Association, Forum romand ASA, Lausanne
• 31 October/ 1 November 2018, ICAEW, UN Sustainable Development Goals workshop and panel discussion, Zurich/Geneva
• 8-9 November 2018, International Conference on Blended Development Finance and the New Industrial Policy, Geneva
• 14 November 2018, Vom Klimawandel bis hin zur Unternehmenskultur: ethische Herausforderungen für Unternehmen und Investoren (event held in German and French), Berne
• 22 November, IFZ, Sustainable Investments Day, Zug
• 3 December 2018, PRI Climate Forum, Zurich
• 7 December, Geneva Summit on Sustainable Finance, Geneva

Further events are listed on the SSF website

Back to top

• September 2018: The Complementa Risiko Check-up - Zur akutellen Lage schweizerischer Pensionskassen features a special chapter on sustainable investments, evaluating a survey on how sustainable investing is perceived by pension funds and how they intend to integrate it.
• September 2018: The Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) published its first Status Report, providing an overview of the extent to which companies, in their 2017 reports, included information aligned with the core TCFD recommendations.
• September 2018: For the latest UBS Investor Watch: Return on Values, 5300 investors in 10 markets were surveyed on sustainable investing. Results revealed considerable differences in the adoption of sustainable investment globally, and confusion about sustainable investing terms. 
• September 2018: As part of a project on Sustainable Investing Capabilities of Private Banks, the Center for Sustainable Finance and Private Wealth (CSP) at the University of Zurich assessed 15 private banks in Europe.
• September 2018: The Schroders Institutional Investor Study 2018 - Institutional perspectives on sustainable investing showed that while the outlook for incorporating sustainability in institutional portfolios is strong, sustainability currently plays a limited role in investment decision-making.
• September 2018: The Asset Owners Disclosure Project published the Global Climate Index 2018/ Pension Funds, assessing the global pensions sector’s response to the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).
• September 2018: The Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) published a series of papers on the Inevitable Policy Response, with the aim to scope the investment implications of a rapid and forceful policy response to close the gap to the Paris Agreement.

Read these and other reports in our Digital Library on Sustainable Finance

Back to top

Join our network of members and partners! Find out how here.

Follow us on Social Media

>Twitter @SwissSustFin

>LinkedIn Swiss Sustainable Finance