In­ter­na­cio­nal: Po­si­ti­ve Mo­ney

Craf­ting an au­da­cious goal is a key part of the sys­tems chan­ge met­ho­do­logy em­plo­yed by the initia­ti­ve, be­cau­se it hel­ps to unify the net­work of par­ti­ci­pants around an am­bi­tious and im­pact­ful pur­po­se, and to set an am­bi­tious but desira­ble goal. Our draft au­da­cious goal is:

By 2025, Eu­ro­pean and US bank len­ding is con­sis­tent with sta­ying wit­hin a 2o-C glo­bal tem­pe­ra­tu­re in­crea­se.

Sin­ce Oc­to­ber 2016 Po­si­ti­ve Mo­ney has pla­yed a cru­cial role in the es­ta­blish­ment, growth, and de­ve­lop­ment of the 2º Len­ding initia­ti­ve (pre­viously the “Mo­ney Mat­ters Initia­ti­ve”). Fo­llo­wing our in­ter­im re­port this short re­port outli­nes the pro­gress made sin­ce then, in­clu­ding the com­ple­tion of our re­search pha­se, the laun­ching of our Net­work at the Oc­to­ber Stra­tegy & De­sign ses­sion in Ay­les­bury, and the re­sul­ting Initia­ti­ve Groups that have been crea­ted to de­li­ver a cli­ma­te-po­si­ti­ve ban­king sys­tem.

Fo­llo­wing the launch of the­se initia­ti­ves, the Core Team has been wor­king hard to main­tain mo­men­tum and en­ga­ge­ment, with each Initia­ti­ve Group ha­ving at­trac­ted a star­ting cohort and hos­ting its initial kick off mee­ting. To suc­cess­fu­lly de­li­ver po­si­ti­ve long-term im­pact on bank len­ding and cli­ma­te chan­ge, it is im­pe­ra­ti­ve that the­se Initia­ti­ve Groups now achie­ve the sta­bi­lity, energy, and ca­pa­city to be self-suf­fi­cient, and to ef­fec­ti­vely pur­sue their de­fi­ning goals. Con­se­quently, the next steps of the 2º Len­ding initia­ti­ve as a who­le will be to en­su­re this out­co­me.

Completion of our Research Phase

Our initial re­search pha­se ai­med at gai­ning un­ders­tan­ding of how bank len­ding im­pacts cli­ma­te chan­ge on a sys­te­mic le­vel. To gain such a pers­pec­ti­ve it was es­sen­tial that we sur­ve­yed the views of prac­ti­tio­ners from across the ban­king and fi­nan­cial lands­ca­pe, and from dif­fe­rent le­vels of the sys­tem.

This ex­ten­si­ve re­search pro­cess ge­ne­ra­ted in­sights on the con­text of bank len­ding and cli­ma­te chan­ge, the broad ecosys­tem of in­fluen­cers ac­ti­ve in this spa­ce, and pos­si­ble chan­ge path­ways th­rough which to chan­ge the cu­rrent ban­king pa­ra­digm and its ad­ver­se ef­fects on cli­ma­te.

En­com­pas­sing stra­te­gies that are ai­med at both chan­ging the exis­ting sys­tem and buil­ding a new one in its pla­ce, par­ti­ci­pants then de­sig­ned ac­tio­na­ble initia­ti­ves to de­li­ver this stra­tegy:

An International Climate Bank – To de­sign and es­ta­blish a glo­bal fi­nan­cial ser­vi­ces ins­ti­tu­tion that of­fers full spec­trum fi­nan­cing for cli­ma­te initia­ti­ves around the world with the grea­test po­ten­tial for GHG draw­down. The ins­ti­tu­tion would work th­rough in­ter­me­dia­ries to ag­gre­ga­te 2°-alig­ned pro­jects in sec­tors such as trans­por­ta­tion and agri­cul­tu­re.

2° City Finance Lab – To crea­te an ac­ce­le­ra­tor for tho­se ju­ris­dic­tions on the brink of es­ta­blis­hing cut­ting-edge stra­te­gies and ins­ti­tu­tions for fi­nan­cing a cli­ma­te-safe eco­nomy, in­clu­ding new re­gio­nal and lo­cal pu­blic and com­mu­nity banks.  The 2° City Fi­nan­ce Lab will work with in­no­va­tors in 2-6 ci­ties or re­gions to build new cli­ma­te-po­si­ti­ve ban­king sys­tems ser­ving lo­cal eco­no­mies and fa­ci­li­ta­te di­vest­ment from fos­sil fuels and banks that con­ti­nue to sup­port them.

ON3 Campaign – To launch a pu­blic cam­paign among key bank in­fluen­cers and sta­kehol­ders that asks com­mer­cial banks to eliminate all new fossil fuel financing within three years. The cam­paign will high­light the hu­man health im­pacts of cli­ma­te chan­ge, and crea­te an early-adop­ter club of banks com­mit­ted to eli­mi­na­ting fos­sil fuel len­ding.

Bank Decarbonization Charter – To crea­te a glo­bal char­ter to be sig­ned by all lar­ge banks (GSIB, DSIB) that com­mits them to:

• a year-on-year 20 percent reduction of CO² concentration on balance sheets and on gross new lending;
• a corresponding increase in allocation to climate positive solutions;
• a reporting framework;
• and, in time, a move to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).