This section includes links to investor resource groups, transparency guidelines, and corporate reporting standards related to climate change. Resources include information for board members, investors, and activists as well as education materials. Five are highlighted to get you started. Additional resources follow, organized by resource type.
Highlights
| COP21 | The 2015 Paris Agreement’s central aim was to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2°C compared to pre-industrial levels - and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5°C or less. Additionally, the agreement aims to strengthen the ability of countries to deal with the impacts of climate change. |
| Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change | The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change. The IPCC provides regular assessments of the scientific basis of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and options for adaptation and mitigation. The IPCC currently has 195 members, with thousands of people from all over the world contributing to its work. IPCC scientists volunteer their time to assess the multitude of scientific papers published each year to provide a comprehensive summary of what is known about the drivers of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and how adaptation and mitigation can reduce those risks. |
| UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) | Glasgow 2021 | The COP26 summit brought parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. |
| World Resources Institute | WRI focuses on the intersection of the environment and socio-economic development, going beyond research to put ideas into action, working with governments, business, and civil society to build transformative solutions that protect the earth and improve people's lives. |
| World Wildlife Fund | WWF is one of the world’s largest and most experienced independent conservation organizations, with over 5 million supporters and a global network active in more than 100 countries. WWF’s mission is to stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature. Goals include conserving the world’s biological diversity, ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable, and promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption. |
Guides
| Principles for Responsible Investment | United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) bring an international network of investors together to put six agreed principles into practice: 1) Incorporate ESG issues into investment analysis and decision-making processes, 2. Be active owners and incorporate ESG issues into our ownership policies and practices, 3. Seek appropriate disclosure on ESG issues by the entities in which we invest, 4. Promote acceptance and implementation of the Principles within the investment industry, 5. Work together to enhance our effectiveness in implementing the Principles, 6. Report on our activities and progress towards implementing the Principles. |
| SASB Standards | Previously known as the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, the first prescriptive investor-centric reporting framework. Provides comprehensive information, as well as an explanatory video. SASB standards are being merged with IIRC guidelines to form the Value Reporting Foundation. These will govern the disclosure of financially material sustainability information by companies to their investors. Available for 77 industries, SASB Standards identify the subset of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues most relevant to financial performance in each industry. |
Agendas, Task Forces & Initiatives
| Asia Investor Group on Climate Change (AIGCC) | Launched as part of the Global Investor Coalition. This initiative creates awareness among Asia’s asset owners and financial institutions about the risks and opportunities associated with climate change and low carbon investing. |
| Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) | More stakeholder than investor focused, GRI helps businesses and governments worldwide understand and communicate their impact on critical sustainability issues such as climate change, human rights, governance and social well-being. The GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards are developed with true multi-stakeholder contributions and are rooted in the public interest. |
| Paris Aligned Investment | A collaborative investor-led global forum enabling investors to align their portfolios and activities to the goals of the Paris Agreement. The PAII was established in May 2019 by the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC). As of March 2021, the initiative has grown into a global collaboration supported by four regional investor networks – AIGCC (Asia), Ceres (North America), IIGCC (Europe) and IGCC (Australasia). 118 investors representing $34 trillion in assets have engaged in the development of the Net Zero Investment Framework through the Paris Aligned Investment Initiative. |
| Science Based Targets initiative | The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) is a partnership between CDP, the United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The SBTi call to action is one of the We Mean Business Coalition commitments, and its targets help provide more than 2,000 companies around the world with a clearly-defined path to reduce emissions in line with the Paris Agreement goals. |
| Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures | As climate change presents financial risk to the global economy, the Financial Stability Board created the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) to improve and increase reporting of climate-related financial information. The final recommendations of the TCFD were released in June 2017 after a collaborative process of global stakeholder consultations. The TCFD recommendations aim to enhance market transparency and enable efficient allocation of capital in the transition to a low-carbon economy as envisioned by the Paris Agreement. |
| The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development | UN | The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries - developed and developing - in a global partnership. They recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests. |
| The Investor Agenda | Developed by seven founding partners: Asia Investor Group on Climate Change, CDP, Ceres, Investor Group on Climate Change, Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change, Principles for Responsible Investment and UNEP Finance Initiative. It calls on global investors to accelerate and scale up actions that are critical to tackling climate change and achieving goals of the Paris Agreement. It is a comprehensive agenda for investors to manage climate risks and capture low-carbon opportunities, and a mechanism to report and showcase their actions in four key focus areas: Investment, Corporate Engagement, Investor Disclosure and Policy Advocacy. |
| UN Global Compact | UN Global Compact is the organization’s strategic policy initiative for businesses committed to aligning their operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles. Areas include human rights, labor, environment, and anti-corruption. |
NGOs
| Climate Disclosure Standards Board | An international consortium of business and environmental Non Government Organizations (NGOs) committed to advancing and aligning the global mainstream corporate reporting model to equate natural capital with financial capital. The CDSB offers companies a framework for reporting environmental and financial information with similar rigor. Helps to provide investors with useful environmental information via the mainstream corporate report. Regulators also benefit from compliance-ready materials provided under CDSB guidelines. |
| Financial Stability Board (FSB) | The FSB created the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and a set of voluntary disclosure recommendations for use by companies in providing decision-useful information to investors, lenders and insurance underwriters about climate-related financial risks. |
| Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility | A faith-based investor network that advocates and engages through the lens of faith to build “a more just and sustainable world”. Integrates social values into corporate and investor actions. |
| International Investors Group for Climate Change | IGCC’s mission is to mobilize capital for the low-carbon future by amplifying the investor voice and collaborating with business, policymakers and investors. IIGCC provides investors with a collaborative platform to encourage public policies, investment practices, and corporate behavior that address long-term risks and opportunities associated with climate change. |
Non- and Not-For-Profit Organizations
| CDP (Formerly Carbon Disclosure Project) | Nonprofit charity that runs the global disclosure system for investors, companies, cities, states and regions to measure, disclose, manage, and share vital environmental information. |
| EIRIS Foundation | Charity based in England and Wales focused on corporate social responsibility. Encourages sustainable and responsible wealth creation and management. Its mission is to use research, analysis and influence to identify gaps, barriers, opportunities and enablers to help organizations and individuals maximize their contribution to the responsible business and investment agenda. |
| Global Network Initiative | Multi-stakeholder nonprofit dedicated to protection and advancement of freedom of expression and privacy rights in the Information & Communications Technology sector. GNI helps companies respect freedom of expression and privacy rights when faced with government pressure to relinquish user data, remove content, or restrict communications. |
| International Integrated Reporting Council | IIRC is a global not-for-profit organization, incorporated in England and Wales. Integrated reporting aims to improve the quality of business and investor decisions by making standardized information available to providers of financial capital, promote a more cohesive and efficient approach to corporate reporting, enhance accountability and stewardship for the broad base of capitals (financial, manufactured, intellectual, human, social and relationship, and natural) and support integrated thinking, decision-making and actions that focus on the creation of value over the short, medium and long term. |
Documents
| PRI Reporting Framework | PRI (Principles for Responsible Investment) Reporting has 12 modules with three main objectives for those committed to its principles: 1. Be an accountability tool for signatories. 2. Provide a standardized reporting tool for signatories' own reporting. 3. Provide feedback to signatories on their progress in responsible investments, facilitating ongoing learning and best practices. |