Utrecht, Netherlands – 16 January 2024: PCAF today announces the areas it has chosen to prioritize for standard development this year. As an industry-led initiative, PCAF is uniquely positioned to develop new greenhouse gas (GHG) methodologies that meet the changing needs of the international financial sector in its transition to a more sustainable system. This latest phase of development represents PCAF’s ongoing commitment to continually broaden the scope of its Global GHG Accounting and Reporting Standard.
The global Core Team of PCAF leads the development of new GHG accounting standards for the financial industry. The team, appointed in September 2023, is made up of a diverse group of 14 members representing all regions and types of PCAF signatories – ensuring all markets and sectors are well-represented throughout the method development process.
The first task for the Core Team has been to select areas of focus in 2024. These areas reflect PCAF’s ambition to ensure that the GHG accounting methodologies meet the global financial sector’s diverse and growing needs in relation to climate disclosures, climate risk management and net zero emission journeys.
Following a rigorous process, in which the Core Team used criteria such as materiality and demand to filter from a long list provided by PCAF signatories, the following priority areas were identified for methodology development in 2024:
The Core Team has commenced the process of constituting working groups made up of PCAF signatories for these four areas, which will each begin to work on the respective methodology development in the coming weeks and months.
In addition, during 2024, further exploratory work will be conducted across the following areas for future standard development cycles:
Hetal Patel, Chair of the PCAF global Core Team and Head of Climate Investment Risk at Phoenix Group comments, “We’re delighted to share PCAF's plans for standard development for the next two years. These are based on a robust process to identify and prioritize the expanding needs of the financial sector for GHG methodologies.”
Caspar Noach, Technical Director of PCAF adds, “PCAF is committed to raising the quality of emissions disclosure across the financial sector and regular standard development is a fundamental part of this. As the international financial sector progresses towards net-zero, its need for guidance on how to account for greenhouse gas emissions associated with their financial activities naturally grows and we strive to continuously expand the PCAF Standard to cover these activities.”
ENDS
About the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials
The Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF) was launched globally in September 2019. Currently, more than 450 financial institutions have subscribed to the PCAF initiative. PCAF signatories work together to jointly develop the Global GHG Accounting and Reporting Standard for the Financial Industry to measure and disclose the greenhouse gas emissions associated with portfolios of loans, investments, provision of insurance, and other financial products and services. By doing so, PCAF signatories take an important step to assess climate-related risks, set targets in line with the Paris Climate Agreement and develop effective strategies to decarbonize our society.
