WWF Respond To Bloomberg Task Force Opening The Way For ‘Climate Stress Tests’

The Michael Bloomberg-led task force of the Financial Stability Board (FSB) has recommended today that companies and investors report their activities climate-related risks.

WWF welcomes this step towards more transparency and calls on G20 finance ministers, financial regulators and central banks to make such reporting mandatory. This information should be used to establish “climate stress tests” against the “well below 2°C target” set by the Paris Agreement for corporates’ and investors’ portfolios, in order to assess their exposure to climate risk.

These recommendations are part of the draft report published today by the Financial Stability Board’s Task Force. The draft is now open for a two months consultation period.

Margaret Kuhlow, lead of WWF International Finance Practice, said:

“We applaud the leadership of the FSB Chair Mark Carney and welcome the recommendations from the Financial Stability Board’s Task Force to assess climate risks and opportunities that companies and investors face. We believe that the use of forward-looking climate scenarios is the only meaningful way to test portfolios and business models against the well below 2°C limit from the Paris Agreement and ensure consistent climate impact information for the market. G20 members should now endorse the recommendations and ensure that climate scenario analysis gets mainstreamed.

Sebastien Godinot, Economist at WWF European Policy Office, said:

“The European Commission is setting up an EU High Level Expert Group for 2017 on how to make European finance more sustainable. The EU Expert Group should seize the opportunity to lead the way and make “climate stress tests” mandatory for all companies and investors in Europe, as a first step to align business models with the Paris Agreement. Voluntary implementation will never be swift enough for answering the climate challenge timely.”