United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI)，founded in 1992，catalyzed action across the financial system to align economies with sustainable development. UNEP FI brings the UN together with banks, insurers and investors globally to shape the sustainable finance agenda. It has established the world’s sustainability frameworks within the finance industry to address global environmental, social and governance (ESG) challenges. It advances sustainable market practice with more than 400 financial institutions headquartered in over 85 countries. UNEP FI supports global finance sector principles to catalyze integration of sustainability into financial market practice. The frameworks UNEP FI has established or co-created include: PRB, PSI, and PRI.
Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), established in 2006 by UNEP FI and the UN Global Compact, and applied by half the world’s institutional investors by 2022.
Principles for Sustainable Insurance (PSI), established 2012 by UNEP FI and today applied by one-quarter of the world’s insurers (25% of world premium). The PSI has developed industry guidance on integrating ESG risks in non-life and life & health insurance businesses
Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB), launched in September 2019 and now signed by some 300 banks representing over 45% of global banking assets. Signatories are working to align their strategies and practice with the vision society has set out for its future in the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Agreement, and relevant national and regional frameworks.
Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative (SSE), launched in 2012 by The PRI, UNEP FI, UNCTAD and UN Global Compact , which involves 90 stock exchanges accounting for almost all publicly-listed capital markets.
Sustainability Accounting Standards Board(SASB), was founded as a nonprofit organization in 2011 to help businesses and investors develop a common language about the financial impacts of sustainability. SASB Standards guide the disclosure of financially material sustainability information by companies to their investors. Available for 77 industries, the Standards identify the subset of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues most relevant to financial performance in each industry. SASB Standards are maintained under the auspices of the Value Reporting Foundation.
Note1：Value Reporting Foundation (VRF) is a global nonprofit organization that offers a comprehensive suite of resources—including Integrated Thinking Principles, the Integrated Reporting Framework, and SASB Standards— designed to help businesses and investors develop a shared understanding of enterprise value—how it is created, preserved, or eroded.
International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB): On 3 November 2021, the IFRS Foundation Trustees announced the creation of a new standard-setting board—the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB)—to help meet this demand of international investors with global investment portfolios for high quality, transparent, reliable and comparable reporting by companies on climate and other environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters. The intention is for the ISSB to deliver a comprehensive global baseline of sustainability-related disclosure standards that provide investors and other capital market participants with information about companies’ sustainability-related risks and opportunities to help them make informed decisions.
Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) was founded in Boston in 1997 following public outcry over the environmental damage of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Its roots lie in the non-profit organizations CERES and the Tellus Institute (with involvement of the UN Environment Programme). GRI is the independent, international organization that helps businesses and other organizations take responsibility for their impacts, by providing them with the global common language to communicate those impacts. It provides the world’s most widely used standards for sustainability reporting – the GRI Standards.
Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), was created by The Financial Stability Board (FSB) in 2015, to develop recommendations on the types of information that companies should disclose to support investors, lenders, and insurance underwriters in appropriately assessing and pricing a specific set of risks that are related to climate change. The climate-related financial disclosure recommendations released by TCFD in 2017, are structured around four thematic areas that represent core elements of how companies operate: governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets. The four recommendations are interrelated and supported by 11 recommended disclosures that build out the framework with information that should help investors and others understand how reporting organizations think about and assess climate-related risks and opportunities. On July 6, 2023, the FSB announced that it will transfer all supervisory responsibilities of TCFD to the IFRS Foundation (ISSB) from 2024 onwards.
Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), which began as a 2020 initiative and was officially launched in June 2021, aims to support businesses and financial institutions to better identify and manage nature-related risks and opportunities through the development of a nature-related disclosure framework that truly implement the concept of ecological protection. On September 18, 2023, the first TNFD Disclosure Framework Recommendation was released, which means that nature-related disclosure is accelerated, and financial institutions as well as companies in industries closely related to nature are recommended to focus on it. Based on the TCFD proposal, which has already formed a wide influence, while maintaining close cooperation with existing corporate sustainability reporting standards (including ISSB's IFRS series of guidelines, GRI standards, ESRS, etc.), the TNFD proposal is expected to play a more leading role in the field of nature-related information disclosure under the trend of convergence and development of global information disclosure standards.
Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP),founded in 2000, is a not-for-profit charity running the global disclosure system for investors, companies, cities, states and regions to manage their environmental impacts. On behalf of investors and buyers, CDP collects environmental information from companies and cities, measuring environmental data to understand the impact and dependence of companies on the world's natural resources, the risks and opportunities they face, and the related management strategies. CDP currently works with more than 590 global investors with $110 trillion in assets under management, and more than 200 multinational companies. At the same time, CDP actively engages in cooperation with global governments, corporations and non-profit organizations and other stakeholders, and proposes comprehensive solutions for environmental improvement from models and data, combined with practical cases. CDP entered China in 2012 and is committed to promoting enterprises and governments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect water and forest resources.
Global Sustainable Investment Alliance (GSIA) is a collaboration of membership-based sustainable investment organizations around the world. The GSIA’s mission is to deepen the impact and visibility of sustainable investment organizations at the global level. Its vision is a world where sustainable investment is integrated into financial systems and the investment chain and where all regions of the world have coverage by vigorous membership based institutions that represent and advance the sustainable investment community.
China Sustainable Investment Forum (China SIF) , established in Beijing as a non-profit organisation in 2012, is dedicated to promoting responsible investment and providing an internationalised platform for exchanging and sharing ideas on issues concerning sustainable development, with focus on facilitating Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) integration, advocating green finance, and contributing to a responsible capital market in China as well as its sustainability. As a member of the Global SIFs Network, China SIF organises Annual Conferences, Summer Summits, SIF Weeks and a series of featured seminars and webinars annually, convening policymakers as well as domestic and foreign experts to share their views, research, and good practice. Professionals and practitioners from research institutes, financial institutions, listed companies, government agencies, and media representatives have joined our discussion and endeavour to explore multiple ways to promote and practice responsible investment and green finance. China SIF keeps launching a series of landmark research reports, such as China Sustainable Investment Review, supporting the Dissertation Competition on ESG and Sustainable Finance and developing the "ESG Online Classes" series of educational videos together with partners and industry experts to promote ESG investment concepts and practices. Over the years, China SIF has become one of the most influential responsible investment forums in the region. Please visit https://en.chinasif.org/ for more information.
Asia Investor Group on Climate Change (AIGCC) was re-launched in Singapore as part of the Global Investor Coalition (GIC) in September 2016 and currently operates under the governance and as part of the structure of the Investor Group on Climate Change Australia/New Zealand (IGCC). The Asia Investor Group on Climate Change (AIGCC) is an initiative to create awareness and encourage action among Asia’s asset owners and financial institutions about the risks and opportunities associated with climate change and low carbon investing. AIGCC provides capacity and a trusted forum for investors active in Asia to share best practice and to collaborate on investment activity, credit analysis, risk management, engagement and policy related to climate change. AIGCC members come from 13 different markets in Asia and internationally, and include asset owners and managers with a combined AUM of over US$26 trillion. With a strong international profile, the AIGCC network also engages with government pension and sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and endowments, AIGCC represents the Asian investor perspective in the evolving global discussions on climate change and the transition to a net-zero emissions economy.
China Climate Engagement Initiative (CCEI), was launched by the Institute of Finance and Sustainability (IFS) and China SIF on July 2023, together with partners. The CCEI is China's first collaborative investor initiative to promote green, low-carbon and high-quality corporate transition by facilitating institutional investor engagement and stewardship management. As of now, 27 institutional investors have joined the CCEI as member organizations, covering local mutual funds, insurance asset managers, bank wealth managers, private funds and international asset managers, representing more than CNY 50 trillion in AUM.