While 2021 is still young, the first weeks have already brought signs of an eventful year in sustainable finance. In early January, Switzerland officially became a supporter of the TCFD and announced the drafting of a bill to make the reporting recommendations binding. With two major Swiss investors announcing to move out of coal, the recognition of the risk of such investments is gaining ground amongst institutional investors.

For SSF, the year also starts with exciting news: the SSF Board has nominated the candidate for the SSF presidency, to be confirmed at the next General Assembly. Furthermore, we are proud to present our newsletter in a fresh coat of paint. Going forward, you will receive this newsletter on a monthly basis, with a break in July and January. Our goal remains to provide a concise overview on SSF activities and other developments and we are convinced sustainable finance will move to a next level in 2021 – great that you are on board for this exciting journey!

Swiss news

• On 12 January, the Swiss government became an official supporter of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), in line with the sustainable finance proposal from December 2020, which suggested preparing the binding implementation of TCFD guidelines.

• Also in January, the Federal Council adopted the new climate strategy, outlining how Switzerland aims to attain net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and highlighting opportunities for the financial industry to contribute to this goal.

• The Swiss Climate Strike movement published a detailed Action Plan, containing a chapter with concrete targets for the financial sector.

• At the end of 2020, the Swiss National Bank and Compenswiss, the compensation fund for Swiss Social Security, both announced a decision to exclude coal from their investment.

International developments

• The European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) issued their final report on the draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) under the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), providing further requirements and guidance on how financial institutions should comply with the SFDR.

• The US Federal Reserve announced in late December that it had formally joined the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS). At the start of this year, the Fed created a new committee to examine the effects of climate change on banking and the economy.

• Also in the central banking sphere, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced its plan to open a climate change centre reflecting the growing importance of the topic for the ECB’s policy.

• The UK government released draft TCFD reporting guidance for pension schemes, and is set to introduce mandatory TCFD reporting for large pension schemes already in 2021. The guidelines foresee, amongst others, scenario analysis and absolute emission metrics.

Market trends

• The Bank for International Settlements launched an open-ended, euro-denominated green bond fund for green bond investments by central banks and official institutions.

• IDB Invest, the lending arm of the Inter-American Development Bank, is preparing to launch a sustainable debt programme, which would mean that all future bonds would be sustainable, green or socially responsible.

We are very happy to welcome the following organisations to our network:

• Anrepa (Asset manager)
• Bamboo Capital Partners (Asset manager)
• DeAuria Finance SA (Service provider)
• Migros Bank (Bank)
• Qontigo (Service provider)
• Sammelstiftung Vita (Asset owner)

The full list of our members and network partners, now standing at 168, can be found on the SSF website.

• 4 March 2021, How to Finance the Transformation, Online
• 15 April 2021, SPHERE ESG, 2nd Edition, Online
• 21-22 June 2021, New Energy Investor Summit, Zurich

> Further events are listed on the SSF website.

• 2 February 2021, Heidi.News, La place financière suisse fera-t-elle sa transition écologique à temps?
• 30 January 2021, NZZ am Sonntag, Keine Investitionen mehr in fossile Energien
• 28 January 2021, Finews, Patrick Odier wird oberster Nachhaltigkeits-Banker
• 27 January 2021, L’Agefi, Finance durable, un nouveau défi réglementaire pour les acteurs suisses
• 12 January 2021, Allnews, Les banques favorables à la loi sur le CO2
• 9 January 2021, Blick, BLICK macht den Realitätscheck. So will die Klimajugend die Schweiz umbauen

> Visit our website for more articles and regular updates