Inaugural Meeting of the International Network of Financial Centres for Sustainability

On 12-13 April 2018, UN Environment convenes the Inaugural Meeting of the International Network of Financial Centres for Sustainability in Milan, Italy.

The meeting aims to mobilize the resources and expertise of financial centers around the world to implement the Paris Agreement on climate change and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Priorities for possible early action by the Network include promoting, endorsing and implementing key standards, such as the Task Force on Climate-related Finance Disclosures (TCFD), and sharing experiences on green loans and green fintech. The Network will work to add value in seven strategic areas:

• raising awareness in financial centers on climate change and sustainable development;
• strengthening market practices by facilitating clarity and convergence on key definitions, taxonomies and standards and supporting their implementation;
• promoting market expansion through cooperation between financial centers, including cross-border financial flows;
• stimulating financial innovation through filling market gaps and developing; breakthrough approaches;
• building capacity among financial center professionals;
• providing an authoritative voice on effective ways to harness financial centers; and
• enabling performance measurement by supporting data collection and analysis on the contributions of financial centers to sustainable development.