About the Awards

Organisers

The International Awards for Climate-related Disclosures by Financial Institutions are jointly organised by the French Ministry for the Ecological Transition (CGDD), the French Ecological Transition Agency (ADEME), and the non-profit think tank 2° Investing Initiative. For the first time this year, the Awards will be integrated with the Climate Transparency Hub in order to promote transparency and best reporting practices around the globe.

What is the Climate Transparency Hub (CTH)?

Led by ADEME and the General Commission for Sustainable Development (CGDD) of the French Ministry for the Ecological Transition, the Climate Transparency Hub (CTH) is a resource platform created to support the climate transparency of financial institutions. Currently based on voluntary participation (it will be compulsory for French entities by 2022), it centralizes and synthesizes climate reporting exercises, in addition to studying development of best practices.

Objectives

The Awards aim to recognize financial institutions that integrate climate-related considerations into their reporting and business practices, notably:

• To increase awareness and promote best practices and innovation in climate reporting and disclosures

• To highlight ongoing progress in reporting, build capacity, share expertise and identify remaining challenges

• To provide the opportunity for applicants to receive detailed feedback on their current reporting

All financial institutions around the world are eligible, including asset managers, asset owners, insurances and banks, as well as development banks and central banks.

In 2020, the top prizes went to four financial institutions from the U.S., U.K., and France: Barclays, AXA, Federated Hermes won in their respective categories. ERAFP won the Jury’s Special Prize for its impressive overall performance

How do the Awards articulate with the CTH?

The 2021 Climate Awards will be based on the CTH’s evaluation criteria. The CTH and the Climate Awards share similar objectives in terms of promoting transparency on climate reporting. The Awards allow for the dissemination of good reporting practices with an educational focus, and for an annual review of practices. Thus, the Awards and the CTH enable financial institutions’ climate reporting practices to be better integrated with evolving regulations. Furthermore, the Awards will help promote and replicate the CTH out of France and disseminate best practices across Europe.

Governance

The Awards are granted by an independent Jury composed of experts from a variety of institutions. The evaluation criteria build on the CTH matrix, developed by ADEME with the help of 2° Investing Initiative in 2021. It will reflect recent developments in climate-related reporting, such as TCFD guidelines and article 29 of the French Energy-Climate Law.

To strengthen the international dimension of the Climate Awards, multiple organisations have joined the steering committee this year. In 2021, UNPRI, Eurosif, the World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA), Luxembourg Sustainable Finance Initiative (LSFI) as well as Finance For Tomorrow will all work with the organisers to widen the Award’s reach. The aim is to share the experience of financial institutions on the importance and impact of sustainable finance issues.

Under the Steering Committee’s responsibility, the 2° Investing Initiative is managing the development of the evaluation criteria grid, the organisation of the consultation process and awards event.

Eligibility

The Awards are international and all financial institutions from the following categories are invited to apply:

• Lenders/ Private Sector Banks (commercial, investment, universal)

• Asset owners (pension funds, endowments, sovereign wealth funds, foundations and insurance companies)

• Asset managers

• Development banks (multilateral/regional, bilateral, national, sub-national or sub-regional)

• Central banks

Award Categories

The Jury will grant:

• An award for the best disclosure for each investors category

• Special prizes might be awarded by thematic pillar depending on participation

The jury reserves the right to identify additional awards categories if required, as well as the right to decline awarding awards for any of the above categories if the overall quality is not sufficient, or there are not enough applicants in the category.