Standard Chartered and Imperial College partner to tackle climate change

The bank will work with Imperial College Business School’s Centre for Climate Finance and Investment over four years to “uncover solutions that will help embed climate risk identification and management into financial decisions.”

The partnership will aim to find practical solutions for the complexity between green policy and business models and how businesses manage and develop resilience to physical climate-related risk. Further, the College will provide education and training across every level of the bank through digital learning tools, to drive climate change awareness and the tackling the commercial risk it presents.

Mark Smith, chief risk officer, Standard Chartered, comments: “Climate change is redefining the way we do business and manage risk. The better we can quantify the risks, the higher are our chances for developing effective responses as a society.”

Calculation of these climate risks is proving to be one of the most significant challenges across sustainable finance, with a lack of consistency across reporting standards making it very difficult if not impossible to effectively compare products which are advertised as ‘green’.

Dr. Charles Donovan, executive director of the Centre for Climate Finance and Investment at Imperial College Business School notes: “This partnership will enable an important expansion of Imperial’s efforts to help define a way forward for major financial institutions and corporations on climate risk management.

“Standard Chartered’s support is a testament to not only the bank’s commitment in this area, but also the pace and scale of the challenges ahead.”

Standard Chartered released its Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) report in December last year, examining the progress the bank has made toward shifting its lending portfolio to align with the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Finextra Research and ResponsibleRisk will be focusing on sustainable finance in investment and asset management at the second SustainableFinance.Live Co-Creation Workshop in March 2020.

Register your interest for the event, where you will be able to discuss the demand for sustainability, the challenges that lie ahead for sustainable investment and how firms across financial services and technology can achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.