Closing the climate gap: the rise of green finance 

Until recently, the sustainability risks of banks and other financial institutions were assessed mostly on their internal activities and on possible impacts from outside their operations. Now, thanks to new regulations, these organizations are in the spotlight for downstream environmental risks related to the businesses they finance or invest in.

Financial institutions face growing challenges regarding the disclosure of their environmental and climate impacts. Regulatory changes mean it is no longer enough to report on internal sustainability without taking account of wider impacts and dependencies. Adding to the pressure, banks and other financial institutions are under increasing pressure to elaborate on their disclosures, due to newly required so-called “double materiality”. This means that it is not just the risks that climate change may have on an organization that need to be disclosed in its accounts, but also the potential impacts that the organization itself…