Dropouts: What Is Happening To The Net Zero Banking Alliance?

Several major US banks have exited the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) citing political backlash, legal risks, and expanding obligations under the alliance, followed by several Canadian and Japanese banks. These departures raise serious concerns about the credibility of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) and the broader role of voluntary commitments in private finance for achieving global climate goals. As the NZBA weakens and cuts down its ambitions, the future of climate-aligned banking may be contingent upon regulatory reform rather than voluntary commitments.

Results-Based Climate Financing: Rewarding Real Climate Action

Results-based climate finance ties payments directly to independently verified environmental outcomes, ensuring climate funds deliver measurable impact. This approach increases transparency and accountability, but faces challenges around upfront costs, technical capacity, and climate justice. Mechanisms like REDD+ and the Amazon Fund demonstrate both the promise and complexity of results-based model in practice.

GUEST FEATURE: Have We Abandoned Development? – Insights From FfD4

Valentin Chavanne is a UNFCCC Youth Delegate for Austria and attended the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development hosted by the United Nations in Seville, Spain. FFD4 brought together global leaders, economists and development experts to advance dialogue on mobilising sustainable financing for development in line with the 2030 Agenda.

2024 Bilateral Offsets: Is The First Paris Agreement Carbon Credit Trading Meaningful?

Carbon credit trading includes limiting emissions, carbon taxes, and trading schemes [1]. Paris Agreement's Article 6 enables voluntary cooperation for emission reduction targets [5][6]. Swiss-Thailand carbon transaction faces greenwashing critiques and oversight concerns [7][8][9].

Navigating The Global Landscape Of Climate-Related Accounting Standards: A Look At The Three Current Proposals

Climate-related accounting manages financial risks from climate change in business strategy. The SEC (United States), ESRS (European Union) and IFRS (International) have proposed global standards on how to measure and report these risks. Challenges include disclosing scope 3 emissions, with ongoing revisions reflecting feedback from companies and investors. by Yara van Ingen What is climate-related...

Carbon Footprint Of Buildings: Solutions

Improving the operational carbon footprint of buildings by, for example, insulation and electrifying the grid, is one solution. A second solution is to reduce the embodied carbon of constructing a building. Finally, policies and incentives such as creating a lead market need to be put in place to support low-carbon products which contribute to creating lower-carbon buildings.

Carbon Footprint Of Buildings: Challenges

We need to decarbonise the building sector, which amounts to 39% of global GHG emissions. While traditionally the focus has been on operational carbon, we need to tackle embodied carbon. Reducing embodied carbon in buildings is a multifaceted challenge, involving decarbonisation of manufacturing of construction materials, and of construction operations.