AEB, CECA, INVERCO, UNACC and UNESPA create the Financial Center for Sustainability in Spain
As part of the United Nations’ Financial Center for Sustainability (FC4S) project
AEB, CECA, INVERCO, UNACC and UNESPA have agreed to create the Center for Responsible and Sustainable Finance in Spain (Finresp), with the aim of promoting and accelerating compliance with the financial commitments linked to the Sustainable Development Goals driven by the United Nations through value proposals for the Spanish economy and its citizens.
This initiative is part of the United Nations project to create Financial Centers for Sustainability (FC4S) that act as an international network to support and promote green and sustainable finance. These centers provide an appropriate framework for financial institutions and other interested parties to discuss and encourage innovative products and services bearing the common hallmark of sustainability. Under this United Nations initiative, nine Financial Centers for Sustainability have already been established in the European Union.
In Spain, the Center for Responsible and Sustainable Finance (Finresp) is established with the intention of addressing, in particular, the challenges and needs of the business fabric and, specifically, small and medium-sized enterprises in our country to adapt to the requirements of the upcoming Climate Change Law and the recently presented regulatory proposals on sustainable finance by the European Commission. With this objective, Finresp aims to promote innovative financing and investment solutions to facilitate this adaptation process for Spanish SMEs, thereby integrating them into the burgeoning movement of sustainable finance that large global corporations have undertaken following the mandate of the Paris Agreement.
As will be recalled, the Paris Agreement, signed in 2015 by more than a hundred countries, established three specific actions regarding climate change: to keep the average global temperature rise below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels; to increase the ability to adapt to the adverse effects of climate change; and to elevate financial flows to a level compatible with a climate-resilient economic development. This last objective highlights the importance that the promoters of the Paris Agreement have placed on financing this process. In Europe alone, the European Commission estimates that achieving these goals will require an additional annual investment of 177 billion euros between 2021 and 2030.
The founders of Finresp in Spain are also aware of the critical role that the financial sector plays in transforming the economy towards more sustainable parameters, an issue they wish to share and promote within Spanish society. To this end, under the direction of the council established by its founders, it seeks to become the appropriate forum where all stakeholders – companies, financial entities, climate change experts, and other public and private market agents – can find innovative financial and investment solutions for businesses and share best practices. Additionally, the Center in Spain aims to reach collaboration agreements with the most relevant centers in Europe, particularly with the one in Paris (Finance for Tomorrow).
