A group of Dutch investors, money managers and financial institutions with €2 trillion ($2.2 trillion) in assets under management called on the financial sector to harmonize how banks measure carbon emissions in their accounting practices.
Unveiled at the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP25 in Madrid last week, the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials' latest report added new asset classes, carbon methodologies and tools for financial-services companies that want to use the PCAF's guidelines in how they assess carbon footprint in accounting of their portfolios.
Some 55 financial institutions have followed PCAF's methodology since its launch in 2015.
APG Asset Management Chairman Gerard van Olphen, one of PCAF's founding partners and the manager of the €459 billion Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP, Heerlen, Netherlands, said carbon disclosure guidelines and methods need to be harmonized.
"Laudable carbon reduction intentions are meaningless without solid, trustworthy carbon accounting. With the consequences of climate change becoming increasingly visible around us, responsible investing intentions in cadence with robust carbon accounting is needed more than ever," he said in a news release.
PCAF's chairman Piet Sprengers added in a separate news release: "We call on the financial sector to start assessing the emissions of their loans and investments, to reduce their finance of fossil assets and actively support the transition to a low carbon economy of the future."
