Financial institutions must play their part in tackling the climate crisis – helping moves away from investing in greenhouse-gas-emissions-intensive activities to a more environmentally sustainable economy. So, while nations debated the global response to climate change at COP26, it was great to see the GFANZ alliance of over 450 investment firms across 45 countries commit to net-zero financial portfolios by 2050. We are proud to play our part in this as GFANZ was built upon the Net Zero Asset Owner Alliance, founded with WWF support in 2019. In addition, more than 30 financial institutions with US $8.7 trillion in assets under management committed to eliminate commodity-driven deforestation from their financial portfolios. The Asian Development Bank also launched an initiative to accelerate early retirement of coal fired power; and a partnership was launched to bring financial support to coal-dependent workers and accelerate the transition to a zero-carbon energy system in South Africa.
