[ad_1]
“Overall, the Swiss financial center now invests four times more resources in companies that produce electricity from fossil sources such as coal or gas than those that produce from renewable sources,” says the joint report of the Federal Office for the Environment and of the Secretariat of State for International Finance.
It is the second report after the first was released in 2017.
Participants in the Swiss financial market have had the “climate compatibility” of their portfolios analyzed on a voluntary basis.
“Progress has been made, but the target has not yet been achieved if Switzerland is to play a leading role in sustainable financial flows,” says the report.
“Around 80% of the participants hold securities in coal mining companies in their portfolios. On average, the Swiss financial center therefore supports further expansion of international coal and oil production, which goes against the” climate goal ” “.
179 financial institutions took part in the study, including, for the first time, banks and asset management companies.
The report notes that the climate compatibility test attracted twice as many participants as in 2017, when only pension funds and insurance companies participated.
Despite conflicting results in terms of companies’ carbon footprint, the report found that half of the companies involved in the tests in both 2017 and 2020 had “taken climate-friendly measures, based on the first test, and, on average, obtained better results than the competitors in the second round “.
The report calls for more concrete measures, estimating, for example, that “holders of real estate portfolios can have a great influence on the direct reduction of emissions”.
He said pension funds were planning to switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy-based heating systems on 30 percent of their properties.
“On the other hand, other players in the financial sector have reported such measures in only 1-2% of their assets,” the report states.
Source link
