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Financial institutions have a direct or indirect impact on the environment throughout their core activities. However, in the case of financial institutions, the main source of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions is not the emissions produced directly by financial institutions via operating their business processes or their energy consumption, but GHG emissions produced by other sectors that are financed by the financial institutions. These type of emissions are known as Financed Emissions. Therefore, systemic assessment of financed emissions is of significant importance for the financial sector in environmental risk management processes.
The Financed Emissions Tool is used to calculate financed emissions throughout the lending activities of commercial banks. The principle of the tool is based on international standards, namely, the methodology of The Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF). This methodology is used for different categories of assets, including assets as important for the banks as business loan portfolios. Capital provided as a loan by the bank is used by companies for business processes as well as for financing GHG emissions.
The tool is used to calculate financed emissions from the perspective of the business loan portfolio of a bank, as well as for a sector or individual customer. Moreover, it is a useful tool for comparative analysis.
The Financed Emissions Tool enables financial institutions to analyze their credit portfolio better, determine the share of financed emissions, identify climate change-related risks and opportunities, and improve business processes in the direction of environmental management while making better strategic decisions.
One of the most pressing problems the modern world faces today is climate change. In most countries, the average annual temperature is rising in a massive an unprecedented manner (IPCC 2022). The serious consequences create risks that can be differentiated into acute (e.g., frequent and severe extreme weather events) and chronic physical climate risks, which cause major damage in various forms also for the country of Georgia.
It is clear from the outset, that due to the scope of the problems some lasting destruction is inevitable. Hence climate change adaptation is as important as mitigation. In both respects, due to its pivotal role within the society and its role in the origination of the problem, economy is the main focus. As a consequence, especially those sectors most affected by and most contributing to climate change need to be transformed in a consequent and timely manner. But for this transformation to succeed, financing is needed and hence financial institutions are essential.
However, from the perspective of financial institutions, the transformation also has a downside: With changing markets and framing conditions, new challenges and risks are arising, labelled as transition (climate) risks. Because in every transformation, there are those that profit and those that suffer. If individual entrepreneurs or companies face economic problems because they find themselves on the losing side of transformation, this could harm their abilities to pay back loans and hence will affect banks and MFI’s as well. Therefore, both physical and transition risks will also affect the banks/ MFI ‘s. This requires Central banks to act in order to preserve financial stability, addressing both the requirement and the practical steps to implement the consideration of especially climate risk management in banks and financial institutions.
In the Status Quo, Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) is still a niche strategy. While many investors are drawn to the concept, there are hurdles that prevent them from actually applying it. In the literature, both the fear of an underperformance and the lack of easily accessible standards have been addressed at large. From consulting experience, we highlight another problem: Especially with negative screening, some criteria are apt to result in fruitless and fundamental discussions that have led to the abortion of many SRI implementation processes especially in smaller organizations. This results from the fact that negative or exclusion criteria are drawn from different contexts and origins and may not be applicable to all investors. We thus propose a simple but differentiated system of criteria that is linked to the Sustainable Development Goals and can be used without the requirement of SRI professionals, giving small institutional investors a pragmatic and easy access to SRI implementation.
Ziel dieses Buches ist, Sparkassen und die dort mit dem Thema Nachhaltigkeit beauftragten Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter in die Lage zu versetzen, das Thema für sich und ihr Haus zu verstehen, zu strukturieren, zu priorisieren und ausgewählte Maßnahmen zielführend und erfolgreich umzusetzen. Die Autoren haben jahrelange Umsetzungserfahrung im Thema in seiner gesamten Bandbreite von der strategischen, übergreifenden Konzeption bis zur Produktgestaltung und Implementierung. Die in diesem Buch beschriebenen Konzepte finden in mittlerweile über 70 Sparkassen aktive Anwendung. Das Erfolgsrezept: Lösungen sind dann erfolgreich, wenn sie pragmatisch gedacht und umsetzungs-orientiert gestaltet sind. Insbesondere seit Beginn des Jahres 2018 zeichnet sich im Rahmen eines EU-Aktionsplans ab, dass die regulatorischen Anforderungen im Thema stark zunehmen werden.
Als Konsequenz aus der Pandemie-Situation wurde 2021 die bereits erprobte Entrepreneurial Summer School (ESS) im virtuellen Format umgesetzt. Sie wurde von der Kigali Independent University ULK, der Hochschule Kempten und der Deutschen Sparkassenstiftung für internationale Kooperation mit Unterstützung weiterer Partner aus dem öffentlichen und privaten Sektor organisiert. Die virtuelle Durchführung war aufgrund von Covid 19 zunächst eine Notlösung. Mit Änderungen am Programm, das ursprünglich für eine Veranstaltung vor Ort konzipiert war, und einem didaktischen Ansatz, der sich für virtuelle Szenarien eignet, wurde sie jedoch zu einem Erfolg. Grundlage der Konzeption und Durchführung war das Konzept des problemorientierten Lernens. Die ESS wird hier als ein Anwendungsfall vorgestellt, der die großen Potenziale von E-Learning gerade im Kontext internationaler und interkultureller Partnerschaften aufzeigt.