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Today, SIFMA, as a member of the U.S. Climate Finance Working Group, published principles for a U.S. Transition to a Sustainable Low-Carbon Economy.
The financial services industry has been active on climate priorities for decades, helping clients reduce emissions and developing new business models. The principles, developed in coordination with 10 other leading financial services trade associations representing the perspectives of banks, investment banks, insurers, asset managers, investment funds, pension funds and other financial intermediaries, build from that experience to create a useful policy framework for the transition to a low-carbon economy.
“The transition to a low-carbon economy will require concerted and coordinated action by all stakeholders, including tremendous reliance of financial markets to facilitate green equity investment, sector transition financing and liquidity and risk management,” said Kenneth E. Bentsen, Jr., president and CEO of SIFMA.
The shift to low-carbon growth will entail a significant transformation of the U.S. economy, and we believe that a clear long-term policy framework, based on the following Principles, is essential to provide the necessary foundation to finance the transition:
- Set science-based climate policy goals that align with the Paris Agreement
- Increase and strengthen U.S. international engagement
- Provide clear long-term policy signals that foster innovation in financial services
- Price carbon and leverage the power of markets
- Minimize costs and support jobs in the transition
- Foster international harmonization of taxonomies, data standards and metrics
- Promote more robust climate disclosure and international standards
- Ensure climate-related financial regulation is risk-based
- Build capacity on climate risk modeling and scenario analysis
- Strengthen post-disaster recovery, risk mitigation and adaptation
For more on the principles, please see the full paper: “Financing a U.S. Transition to a Sustainable Low-Carbon Economy.”
