CaixaBank has joined the United Nations Collective Commitment to Climate Action, a declaration created within the framework of the Principles for Responsible Banking, impulsing the financial sector to mobilise its products, services and relationships in an effort to streamline the economic transition towards a sustainable model. The commitment aims to align the portfolios of financial institutions all over the world in order to finance a low-carbon economy, with the hope of limiting the rise in global temperatures to under two degrees celsius.
The Managing Director of CaixaBank, Gonzalo Gortázar, has pointed out that “it is essential that we speed up the transition towards a low-carbon economy, promoting sustainable and socially-inclusive development. Our backing of the Collective Commitment to Climate Action is a step in the right direction and is fully aligned with our socially responsible banking model, our environmental strategy and our corporate values of quality, trust and social commitment".
In total, 35 banks from all over the world have joined the UN Collective Commitment to Climate Action. Additionally, CaixaBank has signed on to the Commitment to the Climate that CECA and the AEB have been promoting for the Spanish banking sector.
Specific commitments
By signing this agreement, the group of signatory financial institutions promises to focus its efforts on the most carbon-intensive sectors and those most vulnerable to the climate within their portfolios, as these are key for climate transition. In addition, these entities will involve their clients into their own energy transition to contribute more effectively to the technologies necessary to achieving low carbon emissions in the real economy.
The companies also proposed publishing goals specific to the sector, based on scenarios for aligning the portfolio with the objectives of the Paris Agreement. Within the first year following its signature, the entities will publish and implement the measures that they themselves will take alongside their clients to support and speed up the change towards more sustainable technologies, models and companies.
The agreement lays out the commitment made by the financial institutions to working together to develop methodologies to measure the impact on the climate and align them with the global and local objectives. To ensure the individual and collective accountability of each bank, they promise to provide information on their progress in the implementation of their commitment.
United Nations Principles for Responsible Banking
This past September, in an event held in the UN headquarters in New York, CaixaBank ratified the UN Principles for Responsible Banking, whose objective is to focus the activity of the financial sector towards the achievement of the United Nations's Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement combatting climate change.
The Principles for Responsible Banking pursue the role of financial institutions in speeding up the transition towards a more sustainable economy and way of life, due to their key function as financial providers worldwide. In addition, they set the framework for the sustainable banking system of the future and help the sector to materialise its positive contribution on society.
