The Oxford Sustainable Finance Group (OxSFG) recently launched an independent assessment of data quality within sustainable finance, dubbed the Sectoral Data Quality and Integrity Project. OxSFG believe that providing clear sector-specific guidance on data quality and characteristics will help improve and align the datasets that underpin different reporting and analytical frameworks.
Canada started taking orders for its inaugural green bond amid a renewed global push to reduce dependence on fossil fuels after the Russian invasion of Ukraine brought reliance on non-renewable sources of energy back into the spotlight.
The IKEA Foundation is supporting, with a grant of £4.5 million over three years, four key University of Oxford Sustainable Finance Group projects, aimed at making a significant contribution to aligning finance and the financial system with the goals of the Paris Agreement.
US$150 billion per year. That's the expected additional loss that the financial sector could face when climate action by companies is delayed, according to the launch report of a joint initiative by the Oxford Sustainable Finance Group at the University of Oxford and the non-profit think tank 2° Investing Initiative.
On July 15, the Spatial Finance Initiative, part of the UK Centre for Greening Finance and Investment (CGFI), will launch a new report into the current use, and future potential of, these rapidly advancing technologies within finance.
Financial institutions with over $70 trillion in assets have pledged to achieve net zero portfolios and loanbooks by 2050, including meeting ambitious interim 2030 targets.
A report from WWF and Greenpeace found that UK banks and investors are responsible for almost double the UK's net annual carbon emissions. Dr Ben Caldecott, director of the Oxford Sustainable Finance Programme, told Business Green: 'UK institutions providing financial products and services globally can make a massive contribution to solving the problem and there is no time to lose.'
A team of four students from Oxford University including Annabella Wainer, 2nd year PhD student at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment has been named the winner of the 2021 Kellogg-Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge.
New research from the Sustainable Finance Programme tracks how the financing costs for energy projects, measured through loan spreads, have changed over the past 20 years and finds that financial institutions are viewing renewables as less risky and coal as more so. Oil and gas financing costs have exhibited significantly less change.
As UK citizens, should we all be doing more to make our money matter? Writing in the Telegraph, Ben Caldecott, Director of Oxford's Sustainable Finance Programme, encourages individuals to invest in companies that can prove their environmental credentials. "Getting our capital to speed up the transition to environmental sustainability is a key lever and one of the most important ones we have."