Swiss Results

Participating institutions can access their individual results following the link below.

Summary

Over 4,000 portfolios from 179 financial institutions representing roughly 80% of the market have been assessed in a first-of-its kind study of the Swiss financial sector’s alignment with climate goals. The analysis of over CHF 3 trillion in financial assets shows progress on alignment with climate goals, but major gaps remain.

Key findings:

Critically, the assessment showed that the Swiss financial sector’s consideration of climate issues has increased demonstrably since the 2017 study, resulting in:

• Measurable improvement in terms of climate compatibility across a number of key sectors, notably gas on the high-carbon end and electric vehicles on the low-carbon end, both of which are now aligned with the IEA Sustainable Development Scenario;
• A dramatic increase in climate actions, such as shareholder engagement, with over 40% of recorded actions taking place in the past 18 months. Financial institutions that participated in the 2017 pilot led the way, with more than 50% saying they had taken action based on the results of that assessment.
• Strong progress in mainstreaming this topic: 69% of participants had defined a climate target or aspiration for at least one asset class; 65% were part of at last one sustainability initiative; and around 20% of portfolios submitted were labeled as ESG.

But despite improvements from 2017, the 2020 assessment shows that overall, Swiss financial markets are still not aligned with the Paris Agreement goals:

• In spite of increased deployment of new “green” technologies, the retirement of high-carbon technologies like coal power capacity is still far too slow to achieve the 1.5° or even 2°C goal;
• In terms of climate actions, portfolio analysis of financial institutions with coal exclusion policies showed that more than 50% of their listed equity and more than 70% of their corporate bond portfolios still contained coal assets;
• The delta between reduction in portfolio emissions and real-world impact may be widening. While the aggregate exposure to coal power in the listed equity portfolio of financial institutions participating in both 2017 and 2020 decreased by around 15-20%, the underlying investment of companies in coal power led to a nearly 50% increase in installed capacity. These findings highlight the benefit of tracking progress over time and distinguishing portfolio vs. real-world impact.