Publications

The movement towards Net Zero Banking, aligning bank portfolios with the Paris Climate Agreement, has become a key issue for financial institutions around the world.

Despite significant commitments to climate action, the actual impact of these initiatives is increasingly being questioned. There is therefore a need for transparent, evidence-based strategies that stand up to external assessment.

The paper “Net Zero Banking in Practice: Climate Change in Banks’ Core Business” discusses the integration of climate change strategies into bank business processes such as balance sheet management, pricing strategies, information dissemination and supporting activities. The paper shows how banks can influence climate protection in their portfolios and in the real economy through specific measures and instruments.

The need for comprehensive access to sustainability data is becoming increasingly urgent in view of the current global challenges. The broad availability of high-quality and reliable data is not only a lever for the success of the sustainable transformation, but also a basic prerequisite for the development of effective strategies to tackle the ecological, social and economic challenges of our time.

The study “An ESG data platform for a successful transformation!”, which was commissioned by the safeFBDC in collaboration with the Net Zero Banking Alliance Germany, attempts to make a contribution here. Based on the concept of an ESG data platform, success factors and obstacles for the practical implementation of an ESG ecosystem were identified together with representatives of financial institutions. The results can serve as a basis for future projects and initiatives to build an ESG data ecosystem and the recommendations derived can help to develop efficient strategies to promote sustainable finance.

In the discussion paper “Employees fit for Paris: Upskilling in banks for a climate-neutral Germany 2045”, the NZBAG proposes a curriculum for training bank employees on climate transformation.