The Green Finance Study Group (GFSG) has produced a synthesis report to the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors with the Study Group’s key findings on barriers to scaling-up and mainstreaming green finance and proposed a number of recommendations. The report focusses on the five following research subjects: banking, green bonds, institutional investors, risk analysis and measuring progress.

Environmental drivers of risk, such as climate change, resource scarcity, biodiversity loss, land degradation and water risks are growing in both number and intensity. Their relevance as material risk factors to economic systems is increasingly recognised. There is also growing consideration on how such risks link to and impact the stability of the wider financial system. The GFSG report acknowledges this relevance as it is based on a number of specific risk assessment case studies.

WWF:

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  Welcomes the GSFG work and the synthesis report as an important step in highlighting the materiality of environmental risk and its link to financial stability. The report also confirms the urgent need for more detailed and robust demonstrations of this materiality.

• Calls on the G20 to continue this critical work stream. The subcategories should also be expanded further. The GFSG suggests some fields of concrete policy action to foster the growth of green finance. WWF strongly endorses the GFSG recommendations on strong policy signals, definitions of “green finance” and harmonisation of respective criteria across relevant segments of the green finance fields.

• Asks G20 finance ministers to issue concrete policy recommendations for financial institutions to take full account of environmental and social risks in decision-making. The Communiqué of the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Banks Governors’ from 24 July 2016 fell well short of that needed ambition. The first steps now are for G20 Leaders to provide clear strategic policy signals and frameworks for scaling up Green Finance and to elevate the GFSG to a G20 Working Group at the Summit in Hangzhou (4-5 September).

For more Information, please consult the following PDF Documents: