Financial sector commits to draft national Climate Agreement

The financial sector (banks, pension funds, insurers and asset managers) has made commitments on its own initiative in the 'Draft Climate Agreement' presented today.

The sector is thus committed to the goals of the draft agreement with regard to the reduction of CO2 emissions. The sector will report on the climate impact of financing and investments from 2020 and has drawn up action plans to limit these by 2022 at the latest. The sector thus contributes to achieving the Paris climate goals. The sector will also improve cooperation between different types of financial institutions, including Invest-NL, in order to increase financing opportunities for climate-friendly projects.

Although the financial sector has no mandate in the draft Climate Agreement, it wants to be a full partner in the implementation of the agreement. That is why a contribution has been formulated and offered to the Climate Council. The commitments are not without obligation. The commitment of the financial sector will be monitored and secured. The agreements are recalibrated every five years. The draft agreement will be signed at a later date by the trade associations and individual financial institutions.

The financial sector wants to play an active role in the energy transition. In order to achieve the ambitious objectives of the upcoming Climate Act, substantial investments are needed. It is therefore important to make optimal use of private capital. To ensure that the plans of the sector tables can also be financed by the market, banks, pension funds, insurers and asset managers have made their expertise available in the Financing Task Force of the Climate Agreement over the past year. The financial sector is happy to continue to provide this expertise in the implementation phase.

Within the Platform for Sustainable Finance, chaired by De Nederlandsche Bank, the parties involved will share knowledge and experiences about measuring and reporting on climate impact. Among other things, work will be done to improve the quality and comparability of the various measurement methods currently available. By exchanging best practices, frontrunners within the financial sector can help other financial parties – which, for example, due to their smaller size have less capacity to initiate innovations themselves – to also make their contribution to the climate issue.

This message is a joint message from the Dutch Banking Association, the Dutch Association of Insurers, the Pension Federation and the Dutch Fund and Asset Management Association (Dufas)