About Us
The Alliance for Green Commercial Banks (The Alliance) is a new global initiative convened by IFC to bring together financial institutions, research institutions, and innovative technology providers to work together to develop a community of green financial institutions in emerging markets to collectively finance the infrastructure and business solutions needed to urgently address climate change.
Leadership
© The Alliance for Green Commercial Banks
It is our urgent global priority to address the complex and interconnecting needs of turning green investment opportunities in emerging markets into reality. By working together with public and private stakeholders, we hope our work will mobilize the financial sector, and accelerate the transition to a low-carbon global economy.
The Alliance
FOUNDER
IFC — a member of the World Bank — is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets. IFC works in more than 100 countries, using our capital, expertise, and influence to create markets and opportunities in developing countries. In fiscal year 2023, IFC committed a record $43.7 billion to private companies and financial institutions in developing countries, leveraging the power of the private sector to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity as economies grapple with the impacts of global compounding crises.
FOUNDING MEMBER AND
REGIONAL ANCHOR FOR ASIA
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) is Hong Kong’s central banking institution. One of the HKMA’s main functions is to maintain Hong Kong’s status as an international financial centre, including the maintenance and development of Hong Kong’s financial infrastructure. The HKMA is committed to promoting green and sustainable finance and collaborating with local and global stakeholders to address climate risk. HKMA is a founding member of the Alliance and the first regional anchor (Asia).
Value Propositions
Knowledge
One-stop Knowledge Hub: Creating a one-stop shop and peer-to-peer learning platform for financial institutions to acquire knowledge, and tools to develop their green finance roadmaps and transform into credible green financial institutions.
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Community
Community of Practice and Innovation: Bringing together the leaders in green finance to develop a community of green financial institutions across emerging markets. Facilitating dialogue and providing thought leadership to catalyze green finance development.
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Investment
Facilitate Investment for Green Business Opportunities: Helping Alliance members and partners collaborate, unlock the trillions available in green and climate-related investment opportunities and scale up green finance to support a progressive transition to a sustainable future.
Advisory
Deploy Advisory Support for Green Transformation: Accelerating the transformation of green financial institutions and financing the infrastructure and business solutions needed to urgently address climate change.
We are delighted to welcome five of the world’s leading financial institutions to the Alliance for Green Commercial Banks. Asia is the world’s largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, which makes unleashing the region’s climate-smart investment potential critical to tackling climate change. With vast flows of capital from investors into both large corporations and micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises in Asia, all of which are becoming far more aware of the critical need to play their part in the green transition, green finance stands to play a huge role in the region’s sustainable economic development going forward.
The HKMA is committed to making Hong Kong SAR a leading global hub for green finance. Building the capacity of commercial banks and other financial institutions in Asia will help to scale up green finance markets and increase the risk resilience of the sector. The five cornerstone members share our vision of promoting more sustainable and more resilient regional growth, and we are excited to work with them in our collective efforts to address climate and environmental risks.
ALLIANCE KEY PILLARS
GREEN PORTFOLIO
- Mainstream green finance
- Reduce financing to GHG intensive industries
GREEN NEW BUSINESS
- Grow green business
- Diversify green financial instruments
STRATEGIC COMMITMENT
- Green strategic planning
- Improve green finance capacity
CARBON NEUTRAL
- Achieving a state of zero carbon dioxide emission
- Achieving net zero carbon dioxide emissions
ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL & CLIMATE RISK MANAGEMENT
- Strengthen climate risk management
- Establish environmental, social and governance (ESG) structure
February 28, 2023
Accelerating Energy Efficiency Through Financial Structures
To achieve the energy and climate goals set by countries around the world, it is crucial to look for new ways to transform the energy sector, which is responsible for three-quarters of global emissions. How can financial institutions drive energy efficiency solutions? Marshal Salant, Global Head of Clean Energy Finance Group at Citi, shared the overview of energy efficiency financing, how financial institutions overcome the current financing hurdles, and future financing trends.
Read MoreFebruary 15, 2023
Fireside Chat with Michael Greenstone on Voluntary Carbon Markets
From the world’s first emissions trading system (ETS) to the recent Core Climate platform by Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX), carbon markets have been seen as a tool to help mobilize resources to smooth the low-carbon transition for decades. Purchasing high-quality verified emissions reductions in the form of carbon credits has become another effective alternative to offset carbon emissions and reach their ambitious climate goals. Our speakers dived deeper into what it would take to strengthen voluntary carbon markets so they can support climate action.
Read MoreDecember 16, 2022
Building Corporate Accountability: Empower Financial Institutions to Take Actions on Climate Change through Digital Solutions
ESG disclosure is crucial to ensuring that investors are given sufficient information to make properly informed investment decisions. Environmental monitoring and data transparency are crucial for environmental pollution governance. The speaker from the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs (IPE) unveiled how continuous real-time monitoring and reporting have strengthened regulatory enforcement and successfully helped major Chinese cities reduce 56 percent of PM2.5 pollution in the past ten years.
Read MoreOctober 27, 2022
Roundtable | Green Finance for Low-Carbon Technologies: Clean Hydrogen and Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS)
The green energy transition is foundational for global sectors to meet the Paris Agreement goals. As key frontier technologies, clean hydrogen and carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS) will play crucial roles to accelerate this transition. The roundtable, as the second part of the seminar co-organized by the Alliance for Green Banks and Bank of China (Hong Kong), discusses how the financial sector help will drive green transition, through different financing strategies and frameworks, and support clean hydrogen and CCUS’s market development. Clean hydrogen has increasingly taken a central role in the energy market for its low carbon emissions, infinite source, and higher energy density. According to International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), hydrogen will meet up to 12 percent of the final energy demand by 2050. How can clean hydrogen help balance security, affordability and sustainability while supporting the economic growth and meeting international climate goals? In the session, experts will speak about the challenges and developments in clean hydrogen and CCUS, hydrogen refueling stations, green hydrogen refining, and green financing vehicles.
Read MoreSeptember 28, 2022
Small Steps to Big Goals: Unpacking Carbon Footprinting for Financial Institutions
The journey towards a low-carbon future in Asia has been accelerated by a growth in national ambitions to achieve carbon neutrality and net zero emissions. For banks to support this journey, a fundamental understanding of their own carbon footprint must be established before developing pathways and trajectories towards carbon neutrality targets. In this virtual event, experts from the Carbon Trust deep dived into the importance of establishing a robust and reliable baseline footprint and the different approaches to carbon footprint measurement.
Read MoreSeptember 14, 2022
Roundtable | Becoming A Green Bank
The financial sector has a critical role to play in the transition to net zero and mobilizing the resources needed for investments in climate mitigation. Now is the time to design pathways to fulfill the commitments that have been made. In this roundtable, co-organized by the Alliance for Green Commercial Banks and HSBC, industry experts discussed the practicalities of greening financial institutions and the opportunities it may bring.
Read MoreSeptember 08, 2022
Training | Green Finance for Low-carbon Technologies: Clean Hydrogen and Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS)
How can clean hydrogen help balance security, affordability and sustainability while supporting the economic growth and meeting international climate goals? In the session, experts spoke about the challenges and developments in clean hydrogen and carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS), hydrogen refueling stations, green hydrogen refining, and green financing vehicles.
Read MoreJune 21, 2022
Overview of International Standardization on Sustainable Finance
International standards are crucial to set out principles, practices, and taxonomies to support financial institutions to enable positive environmental and social outcomes, address risk mitigation, and drive sustainable value. Through this session featuring a panel of experts from ISO/TC322 - the technical committee responsible for the development of ISO standards relating to sustainable finance - you will become familiar with the international standardization providing structure, transparency, and credibility on sustainable finance.
Read MoreMay 03, 2022
Roundtable | Green and Sustainable Capital Market Evolution
This in-depth roundtable takes a deeper dive into the latest developments and the future of sustainable finance. Issuers, investors, regulators and Standard Chartered's industry experts will share insights from different lens, including the evolution of their segments over recent years and the challenges ahead, providing a holistic picture of the market, and more importantly, a vision of the golden opportunities ahead in Asia's sustainable finance landscape.
Read MoreMarch 24, 2022
Training | Green and Sustainable Capital Market Evolution
In the sustainable bond space, the market has seen record-breaking growth, crossing the US$1 trillion milestone in terms of issuances in 2021. This training session, co-organized by the Alliance and Standard Chartered, explored the different types of ESG-labelled bonds and loans, ranging from use of proceeds instruments to sustainability-linked instruments. The discussion offered perspectives on establishing a corporate sustainable financial framework and explores reporting and monitoring commitments under such a framework.
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