A new drought stress testing tool has been launched with the aim of making financial institutions more resilient to environmental risks:
In a pilot project on Environmental Stress Testing, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and the Natural Capital Finance Alliance (NCFA), have developed an analytical framework and tool that allows banks to quantify and assess the potential impact of drought events on the performance of their corporate loan portfolio. The project has been funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
The Environmental Stress Testing Tool has been successfully tested and developed with 9 partner banks from Brazil, China, Mexico and the United States. The tool will be formally launched on 5th April in London – it has already been launched in Mexico, Brazil, China and the USA.
The NCFA was launched at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+ 20 Earth Summit) in 2012 by UNEP FI and the UK-based non-governmental organisation, Global Canopy Programme (GCP).
Water scarcity has been highlighted as a top three potential risk by the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Reports. Drought events are expected to become more frequent and increase in intensity in many regions due to physical climate change impacts. Improving the availability and quality of respective methodologies to adequately price and manage environmental and climate change-related risks is crucial to make financial decision-making more prudent, markets more efficient and economies more resilient.
Speakers will include representatives from the financial institutions involved in the project: Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Brazil’s Caixa Econômica Federal, Itaú, Santander, Mexico’s Banorte, Banamex, and Trust Funds for Rural Development (FIRA), UBS in Switzerland and Citigroup in the US. Also speaking will be members of the project team from Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), the Natural Capital Finance Alliance, and UNEP Finance Initiative.
Signatory financial institutions are working towards implementing the commitments in the Natural Capital Declaration through NCFA projects. These are overseen by a steering committee of signatories and supporters and supported by a secretariat formed of the UNEP FI and GCP.
For more information on the project, visit emergingmarketsdialogue.org
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