Climate adaptation & Climate finance

Climate Change & Clean Energy

Meeting the Paris Agreement will require a major shift in financial investments away from fossil fuels towards mitigation and climate resilience. The combination of an increasing volume and demand in sustainable investments on the one hand, and a lack of harmonised criteria to characterise these investments on the other, led ISO to initiate the development of a series of international standards on environmental finance. Addressed primarily at financial institutions and institutional investors, these standards could make a substantial contribution to the implementation of the Paris Agreement and the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

What we are working on

developing international standards on green bonds, including climate-related performance of nominated projects and assets as well disclosure requirements, within ISO/TC 207/Sub-Committee (SC) 4 “Environmental performance evaluation”;
ISO/TC 207/SC 7 “Greenhouse gas management and related activities”, where the standards will help define, assess, manage and disclose the contribution of investments and financing activities to the achievement of long-term climate goals, in relation to both mitigation and adaptation;
criteria to characterise green projects and help monitor their contribution to climate-related objectives within ISO/TC 207/WG 11 “Green Finance”;
developing standards laying down principles for sustainable investments, including environmental and social aspects within ISO/TC 322 “Sustainable Finance”.