More than 100 financial institutions have joined GFANZ through the sector-specific alliances. Hundreds of science-based interim targets have been published by firms.

27 October 2022 – Ahead of the UN Conference of the Parties (COP27), the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), the world’s largest coalition of financial institutions committed to net zero through dedicated sector-specific alliances, today announced the release of its Progress Report, and the expansion of its Principals Group to strengthen regional engagement, implementation and collaboration with the United Nations (UN).

After launching in April last year with 160 members, GFANZ membership had grown to 450 by COP 26 and now, ahead of COP27, stands at over 550 members from 50 jurisdictions. That momentum is greater still in implementation. As of October 2022, over 250 targets have been set, and many more are on track to publish their interim targets in line with their sector-specific alliance commitments. Recognizing that the transition must be inclusive, GFANZ has also created regional networks in Africa and the Asia Pacific (APAC) region to support the development of net zero-aligned finance across the world and to ensure that a broad array of perspectives and expertise are reflected in its work.

As GFANZ moves to a more technically oriented phase of work, it has expanded its leadership team to help advance implementation and action across the financial sector. To further enhance GFANZ connectivity to the UN, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Executive Secretary Simon Stiell will join the Principals Group. To strengthen our regional engagement and implementation, the Chairs of the APAC and Africa Network Advisory Boards — High-Level Champion Mahmoud Mohieldin and Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) Chair Ravi Menon will join the Principals Group. Nili Gilbert will continue to Chair the GFANZ Advisory Panel of climate experts from NGOs, academia, and civil society that provides valuable expertise on the work and output of GFANZ.

The Principals Group, which includes the CEOs of global financial institutions, sets the strategic direction and priorities of GFANZ and oversees the cross-sector work that supports progress and helps address challenges around net-zero transition. The expansion of the Principals Group will help ensure GFANZ’s recommendations reflect regional contexts, and the supervisory, regulatory and legal obligations unique to the financial sector as we continue to support net-zero implementation.

GFANZ was founded to mobilize the entire financial sector around a common goal: scaling investment to the levels required for a transition to net zero. It develops the tools, data, and voluntary guidance to help financial institutions turn their commitments into near-term action. This includes helping them develop credible net-zero transition plans and supporting the mobilization of capital to emerging economies and developing economies.

Data availability and quality remain one of the biggest challenges for financial institutions in the development and implementation of actionable net-zero transition plans. GFANZ is supporting the efforts of the Climate Data Steering Committee in making recommendations for the design and development of an open-data utility, the Net-Zero Data Public Utility (NZDPU). It is anticipated that a pilot of this utility will be up and running by the end of next fall, promoting unprecedented transparency on the net zero transition with support from financial data providers, governments, and international organizations. This purpose of this initiative is to address data gaps, inconsistencies, and inaccessibility that slow climate action, providing climate transition-related data, including financed emissions, targets and performance against targets, openly available in a single place for the first time and provide accurate, trusted, and verifiable data. The intention is the NZDPU will ultimately be housed in the UNFCCC.