Standard Chartered, a UK-based multinational banking and financial services company with $688 billion in assets, announced on Thursday it has joined forces with the Imperial College Business School for a new climate risk management partnership.
According to Standard Chartered, the collaboration aims to discover new solutions that will help embed climate risk identification and management into financial decisions and to unlock solutions to practical questions such as how local policy actions will affect business models, and how clients build resilience to increasing physical risks, including flooding and sea-level rise.
Mark Smith, Chief Risk Officer of Standard Chartered, further explained the partnership by stating the following:
“Climate change is redefining the way we do business and manage risk. The better we can quantify the risks, the higher are our chances for developing effective responses as a society. We are excited to be partnering with Imperial College to create industry leading solutions for climate risk management and, consequently, support emerging markets.”
Dr. Charles Donovan, Executive Director of the Centre for Climate Finance and Investment at Imperial College Business School, further commented:
“We are very pleased to be working with Standard Chartered, one of world’s largest emerging markets banks and a demonstrated leader on the issue of sustainability. This partnership will enable an important expansion of Imperial’s efforts to help define a way forward for major financial institutions and corporations on climate risk management. Standard Chartered’s support is a testament to not only the bank’s commitment in this area, but also the pace and scale of the challenges ahead.”
Standard Chartered then added that the partnership comes as part of its wider commitment to take action on climate change and accelerate the provision of sustainable finance.
“Standard Chartered is the first emerging markets focused bank to confirm it will only support clients who actively transition their business to generate less than 10% of earnings from thermal coal by 2030.”
