International Finance Corporation

IFC—a sister organization of the World Bank and member of the World Bank Group—is the largest global development institution focused exclusively on the private sector in developing countries. The Bank Group has set two goals for the world to achieve by 2030: end extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity in every country.

International Finance Corporation leverage its products and services—as well as products and services of other institutions across the World Bank Group—to create markets that address the biggest development challenges of its time. It applies its financial resources, technical expertise, global experience, and innovative thinking to help its clients and partners overcome financial, operational, and other challenges.

IFC is also a leading mobilizer of third-party resources for projects. Its willingness to engage in difficult environments and its leadership in crowding-in private finance enable it to extend its footprint and have a development impact well beyond its direct resources.

Its projects and programs are evaluated by the Independent Evaluation Group. Accountability is ensured by the independent Office of the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman.

Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative

The SSE, launched in 2009 by the UN Secretary General, is a UN Partnership Programme of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the UN Global Compact, the UN Environment Program Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), and the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). The SSE convenes Partner Exchanges from around the world who join the SSE by signing a voluntary public commitment.

Like many United Nations initiatives, the SSE looks to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as agreed upon by the General Assembly within the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, to help focus its activities. The SDGs cover a broad range of environmental and social targets categorized into 17 goals and 169 targets. Of these, the SSE focuses on four ley SDG targets that are particularly relevant for stock exchanges, as well as contributing to a fifth, SDG 17 Partnerships for the Goals, as a cross-cutting theme. The SSE organizes its work with stock exchanges around these key themes: SDG 5 Gender Equality, SDG 8 Decent work and Economic Growth, SDG 13 Responsible Consumption and sProduction, SDG 13 Climate Action. In doing so, the SSE also contributes to other SDGs, such as SDG 6 Clean Water and Sanitation, SDG 7 Affordable and Clean Energy and SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities, but these fall within the SSE’s work on green finance for SDG 13 Climate Action.

Sustainable Banking Network

The Sustainable Banking Network (SBN) is open to all banking and/or financial regulatory bodies and banking associations that have an interest in policies, guidelines and related initiatives to support the financial sector to adopt environmental and
social risk management and green lending.

The Sustainable Banking Network (SBN) is a unique community of financial sector regulatory agencies and banking associations from emerging markets committed to advancing sustainable finance in line with international good practice. The Network facilitates the collective learning of members and supports them in policy development and related initiatives to create drivers for sustainable finance
in their home countries.

The idea for the SBN arose during the first International Green Credit Forum, hosted by IFC and the China Banking Regulatory Commission, in Beijing in May 2012, where banking regulators and associations from 10 countries requested that IFC facilitate a global knowledge network on sustainable banking. The Network was formally launched in September 2012.

The Network is entirely voluntary and participating regulators and banking associations have the freedom to get involved in ways that best help them meet their goals. A defining characteristic of the SBN is the practicality and openness with which members are collaborating to share knowledge.

Global Sustainable Finance Network

The Global Sustainable Finance Network (GSFN) is a voluntary membership based on the global initiative launched in 2011 under the auspices of the World Federation of Development Financing Institutions (WFDFI) by the European Organization for Sustainable Development (EOSD) and the Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia & the Pacific (ADFIAP)

Sustainable Finance Network

The network provides a platform for IOSCO’s members to share their experiences and discuss sustainability-related issues.

The network was formed at the initiative of Finansinspektionen. The Chair of the network will be Director General Erik Thedéen.

The SFN is created to provide members a forum to exchange experiences, gain a better understanding of, and have structured discussions around, sustainability issues, including such things as the details of issuer disclosures and their relevance to investor decision making and the level of uptake and implementation of industry-lead initiatives. The SFN also allows members to discuss the rationale for securities regulators and supervisors to address these issues, what roles they can play, and the challenges they may face.

Climate Bond Initiative

Climate Bonds Initiative is an international organization working solely to mobilize the largest capital market of all, the $100 trillion bond market, for climate change solutions

It promotes investment in projects and assets necessary for a rapid transition to a low carbon and climate resilient economy.

The strategy is to develop a large and liquid Green and Climate Bonds Market that will help drive down the cost of capital for climate projects in developed and emerging markets; to grow aggregation mechanisms for fragmented sectors; and to support governments seeking to tap debt capital markets.

Climate Bonds Initiative is an investor-focused not-for-profit. Its work therefore is an open source public good and falls into three workstreams.

International Network of Financial Centres for Sustainability (FC4S)

The FC4S Network is structured as a partnership between financial centres and the United Nations; la Environment Programme. The objective of the network is to exchange experience and take common action on shared priorities to accelerate the expansion of green and sustainable finance.” Launched in September 2017, the FC4S Network held its inaugural meeting in April 2018. The FC4S Network gathers as of July 2018 17 financial centres and is supported by five partners: the Climate Bonds Initiative, the Sustainable Digital Finance Alliance, the Sustainable Stock Exchange Initiative, the Principles for Responsible Investment and the UNEP Finance Initiative.

Central Banks and Supervisors Network for greening the financial system (NGFS)

The Central Banks and Supervisors Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) “is the only forum worldwide bringing together central banks and supervisors committed to better understand and manage the financial risks and opportunity of climate change.” The network was launched in December 2017, during the One Planet Summit and gathers, as of July 2018, 16 members participating in three different work streams: supervision, macro-financial and mainstreaming green finance.

International Platform on Sustainable Finance

The European Union launched the International Platform on Sustainable Finance (IPSF) together with relevant authorities from Argentina, Canada, Chile, China, India, Kenya, and Morocco.

It focuses on environmentally sustainable initiatives in particular in the areas of taxonomies, disclosures, standards and labels, which are fundamental for investors to identify and seize green investment opportunities worldwide.