UN Global Compact CFO Taskforce commits to KPIs to drive private sector investment towards Sustainable Development Goals
The new KPIs serve as a benchmark on the integration of the SDGs in corporate finance.
New York, NY, June 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- UNITED NATIONS, New York, June 15, 2021 — The UN Global Compact CFO Taskforce today announced 58 companies with a market capitalization of over $1.6 trillion have now committed to key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure their progress towards the implementation of the CFO Principles on Integrated SDG Investment and Finance.
The announcement was made at the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit during the plenary session “Financing the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement” which explored how linking “ESG” to meaningful corporate sustainability action will benefit investors and companies and is essential if we are to achieve the Paris Agreement and the SDGs by 2030.
Launched a year ago, the CFO Principles are the first UN-backed principles for integrated SDG finance and investment which seek to guide companies in aligning their sustainability commitments with credible corporate finance strategies to create real-world impact on the SDGs.
The new KPIs serve as a benchmark on the integration of the SDGs in corporate finance. The CFOs will also use the KPIs to set targets on what they want to achieve, both individually and collectively as members of the CFO Taskforce. In due course the KPIs will become an integral part of the accountability mechanism in the implementation of the UN Global Compact’s Ten Principles and, combined with the CFO Principles, represent an important step towards the integration of sustainability in company practices.
As custodians of over $14 trillion a year in corporate investment, CFOs are a driving force for the achievement of the SDGs as demonstrated by recent announcements from members of the United Nations Global Compact CFO Taskforce this year:
- In January, Tesco launched a sustainability-linked bond of €750 million that, for the first time, is linked to the company’s commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
- In January, BTG Pactual, the largest investment bank in Latin America, raised $500 million in green bonds. In February, they registered this issuance alongside two others on the Nasdaq Sustainable Bond Network (NSBN), the US stock exchange’s database of information on the main issuances of sustainable bonds around the world.
- In February, ABInBev announced a $10.1 billion sustainability-linked revolving credit facility.
- In June, Enel launched a multi-tranche sustainability-linked bond for institutional investors in the Eurobond market totaling €3.25 billion, the largest sustainability-linked transaction ever priced in the fixed-income capital markets.
The UN Global Compact CFO Taskforce, chaired by Alberto De Paoli, CFO, Enel and Scott A. Mather, CIO U.S. Core Strategies, PIMCO, was launched by the UN Global Compact in December 2019 with the goal to inspire a new meaning for the role of CFOs as the architects of long- term sustainable value creation by raising awareness of the transformative impact of corporate finance across financial markets, the global economy and society as a whole.
For more information and to see a list of members please visit www.cfotaskforce.org
About the United Nations Global Compact
As a special initiative of the UN Secretary-General, the United Nations Global Compact is a call to companies everywhere to align their operations and strategies with Ten Principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. Our ambition is to accelerate and scale the global collective impact of business by upholding the Ten Principles and delivering the Sustainable Development Goals through accountable companies and ecosystems that enable change. With more than 12,000 companies and 3,000 non-business signatories based in over 160 countries, and 69 Local Networks, the UN Global Compact is the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative — one Global Compact uniting business for a better world. For more information, follow @globalcompact on social media and visit our website at unglobalcompact.org
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