The Global Ethical Finance Initiative (GEFI) will be launching its SDG Financial Products Platform at COP26, showcasing financial products that are aligned to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The platform will partner with select financial institutions to grow the ecosystem of SDG aligned financial products across a range of asset classes.
GEFI has been working in sustainable finance for over a decade and has historically focused on advocacy and raising awareness through capacity building and events. We are now moving to deliver practical, private sector led-solutions to drive real change in financial institutions on SDG alignment.
With COP26 coming to Glasgow in November, there has been a lot of momentum around financial institutions taking action on climate change. There has been an explosion of pledges, frameworks and tools that assist financial institutions in setting and delivering on net zero by 2050. Collective action and enabling initiatives are essential to achieve net zero by 2050 and now is the time for financial institutions to leverage the work that has been done around net zero by 2050 to take action to achieve the SDGs by the earlier deadline of 2030.
One of the seventeen SDGs is focused on climate action, but there are a further sixteen goals such as ending poverty, improving health, reducing inequality and spurring economic growth that all require immediate action. We need to tackle climate change to make sure there is a sustainable future for our planet, but we also need to achieve the SDGs to ensure that there is shared peace and prosperity for the people and planet, now and into the future. There are challenges to be overcome in private sector integration of the SDGs such as how do we measure and report on impact? How do we consider the holistic impact of a project on the SDGs? Is SDG alignment really driving positive change? These are complex issues and require collective thought and action across financial institutions.
GEFI believes that this next decade needs to be one of action, there must be a system change to align financial institutions to the SDGs and enabling initiatives need to be developed to support this.
To facilitate action in financial institutions, GEFI is launching its SDG Financial Products Platform at COP26. The platform is based on the belief that private sector led solutions are required to deliver the SDGs. If the SDGs are to be delivered by 2030, the SDGs need to be embedded in private-sector financial products across asset classes.
The platform partners with select financial institutions to showcase innovative products that are aligned to the SDGs. The platform and partners work together throughout the product lifecycle to share learnings and build the ecosystem of SDG aligned financial products. In a market of increasing virtue signalling, financial products listed on the platform are prequalified. The platform only partners with financial institutions that demonstrate a genuine commitment to the SDGs and have embedded the SDGs in the product listed.
The platform is the result of a collaboration between GEFI and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to facilitate the development of private sector solutions that are aligned to the SDGs.
We look forward to launching the platform at COP26 in collaboration with our key partner Aegon Asset Management who launched its Global Sustainable Bond Fund (“GSSBF”) on 22 October 2021. The GSSBF uses a proprietary methodology that incorporates the SDGs into the appraisal of sovereign bonds, investing in financially strong countries that contribute to the improvements in sustainability targets as defined by the SDGs. Further information on the GSSBF can be found here.
If you would like to find out more about the SDG Financial Products Platform or would like to apply to become a partner, please contact Natalie Jackson at GEFI (natalie@globalethicalfinance.org).