ISSUE 3 unepfi.net MAY
2001
IN THIS
ISSUE:
UNEP FI
catalyses 2001-2002 activities
unepfi.net - better URL, better look, better
services.
UNEP FI and the GRI
Export Credit Agencies and the
Environment.
UNEP FI Working Groups: Tools, Actions,
Results.
UNEP FI
CATALYSES 2001-2002 ACTIVITIES
June 25,
2001
Following
the launch of its new 2001-2002 work programme in Frankfurt in February,
2001,
the UNEP FI Joint Steering Committee meets 25 June on the premises of
insurance giant,
CGNU, in London. The
group of 20 plus bank, insurance, and asset management executives
who steer
UNEP FI will discuss UNEP FI activities in the build up to the World Summit for
Sustainable Development in South Africa in 2002 and the earlier UN Finance
for Development
meeting that takes place in Mexico in March
2002.
UNEPFI.NET
- BETTER URL, BETTER LOOK, BETTER SERVICES
April 20 2001
At UNEP FI
our key foci are action and networking, and our website is being redesigned with
these
foremost in mind. unepfi.net will bring a host of new services to our
users in the coming months:
rather than viewing the internet as a
separate process, we fully integrate its strengths into all of our projects,
conferences and meetings. unepfi.net is more than a place to find
information, it is an e-conferencing centre
where information can be debated
and exchanged at any time and from
any internet access point on the globe.
For example the new site will include:
- e-networking before face2face
events will give our clients added focus and preparation time.
- expert chats
will bring groups together to discuss and debate new publications and
processes.
- online document exchange capability will allow clients to post
and debate documents for and with others.
- online professional development
programmes designed by experts for experts.
- streaming media from our
events will allow clients to watch and listen to our events
from any internet
access point.
In addition to this, unepfi.net will continue to
provide high quality information
and documents on our activities and on the
finance and sustainable development interface in general.
UNEP FI AND THE GLOBAL REPORTING
INITIATIVE (GRI)
16 May
2001
Anthony
Sampson, CGNU, Chair of the UNEP FI
Environmental Management and Reporting (EM&R)
work group, met with Allen
White, Interim Director, GRI, in
Paris on 16 May. The meeting explored how
UNEP FI's EM&R group can
contribute to GRI's effort to create sectoral reporting guidelines for the
finance sector.
There was an agreement to explore in greater detail a
mutually beneficial form of collaboration between GRI and UNEP FI.
UNEP FI's
EM&R group is working to create an international environmental reporting
tool for financial institutions
worldwide and building on earlier work of
the FORGE Group in the UK and
the
Environmental Performance Indicators (EPI)
work of the Swiss-German financial community.
THE ENVIRONMENT AND EXPORT CREDIT AGENCIES (ECAs)
A
Workshop for Export Credit Agencies and UNEP FI
Signatories
October 2001
The UNEP Finance Initiatives, in
collaboration with UNEP Energy and various ECAs,
is developing a workshop
that will gather members of the Finance Initiatives (FI) and ECAs
to examine
environmental questions relevant to the finance, insurance and export guarantee
sectors.
The thrust of the workshop will be the exchange of information
and experience that will help participating
companies and agencies
efficiently and successfully take into consideration environmental concerns in
project approval.
The one and a half day workshop is tentatively scheduled
for mid October 2001in Paris and will comprise four fora:
Raising
Environmental Awareness
Task specific training
Sustainability and
Investment Instruments
Environmental Professional Development Programme
(EPDP).
For more information on this workshop, please do not hesitate to
contact
Mark Sanctuary at mark.sanctuary@unep.ch.
UNEP FI WORKING
GROUPS: Tools, Actions, Results.
Asset Management
>> Learn more online: unepfi.net/am
Following discussions
between the UNEP FI secretariat and steering committees
the UNEP FI Asset
Management working group is being relaunched under Rob Lake,
Henderson Global
Investors, with a revitalized work programme (now available online).
The
working group will initially explore the principal strategies available to
asset
managers to encourage a response to the sustainable development agenda
through
their equity investment activities. This work will be underpinned by
a review of investment
and sustainability megatrends and a review of
corporate governance practices.
Environmental Management and
Reporting
The
UNEP FI working group on Environmental Management & Reporting
(EM&R),
chaired by Anthony Sampson, CGNU, is building on the earlier work
of the
FORGE Group in the UK and the Environmental Performance Indicators
(EPI)
developed by the Swiss-German finance community, to create an
international
EMR tool for the financial sector worldwide.
With
representatives from 19 companies, the UNEP FI EM&R Group is globally
representative.
Additionally, a larger associates group ensures that the
experience of the 19 members of
the working group itself is further
strengthened by perspectives from a wider range of financial
institutions
which are free to comment on the process to develop a practical EM&R tool.
The UNEP FI working group intends to publish its EMR Tool during the UNEP FI
2002 Roundtable,
scheduled for 14-15 March, 2002, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)
is
assisting UNEP FI EM&R with the co-ordination of its
work.
Climate
Change
>> Learn more online: unepfi.net/cc
The UNEP FI Climate Change
Working Group held a conference call at the end of May 2001,
bringing
together bankers and insurers from around the globe and starting a work
programme
that delivers a clear message defining a proactive and visible role
for banking and insurance on
the Climate Change challenge.
The
message is being delivered at a series of conferences the first of which is a
panel event is
planned for UNFCCC's COP6bis in Bonn, Germany this July.
Further events are planned for
conferences on the build up to WSSD 2002,
South Africa. One of the principal positions of the
working party is to
provide proactive and concrete financial products and services to address
climate change.
The Finance Initiatives is in a powerful
position, poised to promote new business opportunities
that will direct
investment towards more climate friendly projects and address the risks tied
to climate change, both financial and environmental.
END
Copyright
2001 - UNEP FI
The UNEP
FI BULLETIN is a monthly publication of the
United Nations Environment
Programme's Finance Initiatives: Innovative financing for
sustainability
Economics and Trade Unit
Division of Technology, Industry
and Economics
United Nations Environment Programme
Editor: Jacob Malthouse
malthouj@unep.ch
