Much of the work around sustainable finance in the past decade was concentrated on the role of investors. In its latest publication, SSF shifts the focus to an equally important area. With a deep dive into the role of sustainability in lending, we not only provide a broad overview on academic findings about this topic, but also demonstrate best-practice examples of how ESG factors can be considered in different forms of financing. And we are convinced: lending offers an even more direct lever to influence companies than investing – a good reason to find out more about it in our report.

Lack of water – to a large extent driven by climate change -  is perceived as a growing risk for operations in different sectors. The fact that assets might literally strand due to water shortage is impressively illustrated in a new report by CDP and Planet Tracker, commissioned by the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment.

EU News

• The EBA (Euopean Banking Association) has published a discussion paper on “The Role of Environmental Risks in the Prudential Framework”, which assesses if the current prudential framework is able to sufficiently address environmental risk drivers and considers how these could be addressed through changes in the framework.
• EFRAG, the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group, calls for feedback on their draft corporate sustainability standards that are designed to underpin the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), the legislation which replaces the existing Non-Financial Reporting Directive by 8 August.
• The Liechtenstein Workshop for Sustainable Finance 2022, taking place on 22 September 2022, has an open call for papers.

International News

• Signatories of the Science-Based targets initiative (SBTi) more than doubled during 2021, with 1082 signatories as of the end of December 2o21. Of these, only seven companies have approved targets for 2021.The rest have pledges near term climate targets, to be met before 2030 and 20% of these were aligned with 2°C and not the 1.5°C temperature scenario. All of this and more in their third annual report.

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

• Anlagestiftung Winterthur AWI (Foundation)
• Neuberger Berman Europe Limited (Asset Manager)

The full list of our members and network partners, now standing at 211, can be found here.

• 9 June 2022, Zurich, SSF Event: Launch of Swiss Sustainable Investment Market Study 2022
• 29 June 2022, Bern, SSF Annual Conference 2022
• 4 & 5 July 2022, Zurich, New Energy Investor Summit

Save the Dates: 

• 3-6 October 2022, Geneva, Building Bridges Week 2023

• 30 May 2022, Interview with Sabine Döbeli on weapons exclusions, SSF CEO, Swiss radio SRF4 News
• 25 May 2022, Kreditfinanzierung als starker Hebel für eine nachhaltige Schweiz, The Onliner
• 24 May 2022, Using mortgages as Leverage for Climate Change, finews.ch
• 24 May 2022, Swiss scheme excludes commodities under ESG policy despite second-best return, IP&E
• 19 May, 2022, Parlamentarier wollen für die Schweiz eine Green Investment Bank  (with statement of Sabine Döbeli), Swiss television SRF1
• 13 May 2022, L’Agefi, Les Swiss climate scores, outil contre le greenwashing, verront le jour cet été (print only)
• 13 May 2022, Le Temps, Des gains et une bonne (print only)
• 4 May 2022, NZZ, Ist das ESG, oder kann das weg?

Visit our website for more articles.