Impact Disclosure Taskforce Created to Scale Financing of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
28 November 2023 - 10:00AM
Business Wire
- The Impact Disclosure Taskforce (the “Taskforce”) was
established to promote transparency and accountability among
corporates and sovereigns regarding their intentions and progress
towards advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs)
- The guidance supports entities committed to addressing
development needs and reducing global inequality to access growing
pools of sustainable capital
- The Taskforce anticipates releasing the voluntary Impact
Disclosure Guidance for public consultation in April 2024
A network of financial institutions, capital markets
participants, and industry stakeholders have formed the Impact
Disclosure Taskforce to establish voluntary guidance to help
corporate entities and sovereigns measure and disclose their
efforts to reduce major gaps to achieving the SDGs. The Taskforce
is acutely aware that the world is not on track to achieve the
SDGs, the global agenda agreed in 2015 to alleviate poverty and
inequality, provide for basic needs, protect the planet and combat
climate change by 2030.1 Achieving the SDGs requires unprecedented
levels of investment, particularly in emerging markets and
developing economies (EMDE), estimated by the UN Conference on
Trade and Development (UNCTAD) to be over USD $4 trillion per
annum.2
The volume of private investment seeking financial,
environmental, and social returns is estimated to grow from USD $41
trillion in 2022 to USD $50 trillion by 2025.3 However, corporate
entities and sovereigns in jurisdictions with the most significant
development gaps often lack the disclosures necessary to access
such sustainable pools of capital. The Taskforce has set out
voluntary guidance that draws on existing resources to help
entities set targets that specify their intentions for incremental
contributions towards addressing the development challenges that
are most relevant to their local context. The guidance will also
help them monitor and report their progress against such
targets.
The Taskforce also intends to explore mechanisms for
disseminating and analyzing this entity-level impact information to
promote transparency and accountability. Entities that apply the
guidance would provide helpful data required for investment
decisions, thus making their entire balance sheets more attractive
to sustainable financiers. While the guidance can be used by
corporate entities and sovereigns of all jurisdictions, it is
primarily designed for entities that operate in economies facing
the largest SDG gaps and in jurisdictions without regulatory
guidance for sustainability disclosures.
The Taskforce comprises major financial institutions and
industry participants, including participants from Amundi, AXA
Investment Managers, Bank of America, Blaylock Van, BlueMark,
BlueOrchard, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), Citi,
Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, J.P. Morgan
Corporate & Investment Bank, Morningstar Sustainalytics,
Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking, Natixis Investment
Managers, Pictet Asset Management, Societe Generale, and Standard
Chartered.
The Taskforce also obtains input from public development banks
including the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the French Agency for
Development (AFD), and the United States International Development
Finance Corporation (DFC), as well as from the Global Impact
Investing Network (GIIN), members of the Global Investors for
Sustainable Development Alliance (GISD), and Linklaters. The
International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) and the
International Capital Market Association (ICMA) are observers to
the Taskforce.
A concept note outlining the objectives of the Impact Disclosure
Taskforce can be found here. The Taskforce aims to complete the
guidance for public consultation in April 2024.
Caroline Le Meaux, Global Head of ESG Research, Engagement
and Voting, Amundi: “Mobilizing private investment toward
impact-driven solutions has never been so dramatically needed to
accelerate sustainable development in emerging markets and
developing economies. The financial sector needs to accompany
corporates and sovereigns facing the largest gaps towards achieving
the SDGs, advising them on how they can set targets and report on
them to be able to tap sustainable pools of capital. Amundi is
proud to be part of the Impact Disclosure Taskforce, supporting the
emergence of global standards for managing impact investments and
going further in our commitment to promoting transparency and
accountability.”
Maria Teresa Zappia, Chief Impact and Blended Finance
Officer, Deputy CEO, BlueOrchard: “As impact investors,
enhanced disclosure from issuers with material impact targets and
metrics allows us to broaden our investible universe and further
understand and report on the impact of our investments.”
Robert Simpson, Head of Emerging Markets Strategy &
Solutions, Pictet Asset Management: "The asset management
industry has a key role to play in closing the SDG financing gap
and allocating capital to where it is most needed. With improved
levels of disclosure, clarity on development priorities, and
ongoing assessment, investors can allocate with greater confidence
towards emerging markets and companies operating within them,
investing beyond ESG labelled bonds."
Arsalan Mahtafar, Co-Chair of the Impact Disclosure Taskforce
and Head of J.P. Morgan’s Development Finance Institution:
“Institutional investors with strategies to finance the SDGs face a
dearth of investible assets in the developing world. A transparency
mechanism on an entity’s anticipated and realized SDG impacts has
the potential to unlock hundreds of billions of sustainable capital
towards international development each year through mainstream
financing channels.”
Cedric Merle, Co-Chair of the Impact Disclosure Taskforce and
Head of the Center of Expertise and Innovation within Natixis
Corporate & Investment Banking’s Green and Sustainable Hub:
“Incentives are necessary for emerging market entities to further
disclose their SDG footprint, including the harm caused. Data gaps
must be filled in emerging jurisdictions where there are no
sustainability reporting requirements, but this can only be a
starting point. “Newcomers” to sustainability also need guidance on
how to set targets meaningful to their financiers.”
Thomas Eveson, Vice President, Global Lead for Sustainable
Finance, Sustainalytics: “Closing the SDG gap requires
innovative initiatives. Collaborating to provide suggested guidance
on standardized impact metrics for development finance will allow
entities to more clearly communicate their contribution towards the
SDGs. We are working to support greater impact disclosures and
ultimately attract more sustainable finance capital to emerging
markets and developing countries.”
1 United Nations Global Compact and Accenture, Global Private
Sector SDG Stocktake, 2023. 2 United Nations Conference on Trade
and Development, Developing countries face $4 trillion investment
gap in SDGs, 2023. 3 Bloomberg, ESG May Surpass $41 Trillion Assets
in 2022, But Not Without Challenges, 2022.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231128154253/en/
Please get in touch if you’d be interested in speaking with a
taskforce spokesperson, contacts are: Email:
charlotte.f.powell@jpmorgan.com; alice.gasson@jpmorgan.com and
kay.frelet@bpce.fr. Number: +1 646 532 1817
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