The Netherlands, December 7, 2020 - The number of Dutch banks, insurers and pension funds working on calculating the climate impact of their loans and investments is growing. Twenty Dutch financial institutions with total assets under management of €3.1 trillion are now part of the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF), which has developed a global standard to map the GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions of loans and investments.
This is evidenced by the most recent report by PCAF’s Dutch member financial institutions, which was presented today during the digital Round Table of Parliament on the Climate Commitment of the Financial Sector. (Rondetafelgesprek Tweede Kamer Klimaatcommitment van de Financiële Sector)
Climate commitment of the Financial Industry in the Netherlands
By making their GHG emissions transparent, financial institutions can give concrete form to the commitment that virtually the entire Dutch financial industry has made to the Dutch climate agreement. Among other things, the industry promised to measure the climate impact of its loans and investments, to report on them and to develop concrete reduction targets.
PCAF Netherlands members
Recently, Invest-NL and NN joined PCAF Netherlands. The other members are ABN AMRO, Achmea Investment Management, Actiam, APG, ASN Bank/de Volksbank, a.s.r., BNG Bank. FMO, MN, NIBC, NWB, PME, PMT, Rabobank, Robeco, Triodos Bank and Van Lanschot Kempen.
Even better measurement
In the report, the twenty PCAF Netherlands participants provide an update on the progress made in implementing the PCAF Standard. This has led to a collaboration with CBS, the Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics, to gain an even more accurate insight into energy consumption and GHG emissions linked to the mortgage portfolios of the participating banks and insurers. With this improved insight, financial institutions can more effectively help consumers to make their homes more sustainable.
"PCAF plays an important role in enabling the financial sector, together with their customers, to accelerate the transition to a low-CO2 future. It is also business. Organizations can gain better insight into climate-related risks of their investments. It is therefore no surprise to me that PCAF is widely embraced worldwide as a standard in this area."
Tjeerd Krumpelman (ABN AMRO), Chairman, PCAF Netherlands
A global movement
PCAF started in 2015 at the initiative of ASN Bank during the Paris climate summit. 11 Dutch financial institutions immediately joined. Since then, PCAF has grown into a worldwide initiative with a published standard which earned the authoritative endorsement of the GHG Protocol. To date, 88 financial institutions from all over the world have joined and committed to the agreement to measure and report their GHG emissions. Together, they represent $18 trillion in total assets. That was only $3.5 trillion last year.
PCAF’s ambition is to make measuring GHG impact with the PCAF Standard common practice within the financial industry.
Science-based targets
In the Netherlands, financial institutions are working on an important next step: using insights from climate science to set emission reduction targets that are demonstrably in line with the Paris Climate Agreement. These goals ensure that financial institutions can actively steer towards maintaining the global temperature rise to well below two degrees Celsius.
