The Asia Sustainable Finance Initiative aims to help shift Asia's financial flows towards sustainable economic, social, and environmental outcomes.
With WWF as secretariat, this multi-stakeholder platform will bring together the finance industry, academia, and science-based organisations, to support Singapore-based financial institutions operating in the region in deepening their sustainable finance expertise.
According to a media release published on Monday, the financial sector is crucial in creating resilient and sustainable economic growth through its ability to influence companies to adopt best practices and to direct financial flows towards sustainable development outcomes.
Critical Lever
As a key global financial hub, Singapore is an important conduit for capital flows into the Asia region, and as such its financial institutions have significant potential to shape resilient regional economies. In addition, the Asia Sustainable Finance Initiative (ASFI) can foster peer-to-peer sharing with other national sustainable finance initiatives in the region.
Sustainable finance is a critical lever to address the increasing vulnerability of the region to climate change, the degradation of land and ocean ecosystems, labour and human rights, and water risk. At the same time, the shift to sustainable economies represents around $5 trillion of investment opportunities between now and 2030 in Asia alone.
Navigating Risks
To support the finance sector in navigating these risks and opportunities, ASFI was developed to speed up the integration of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles into financial decision-making, and to ensure that this leads to measurable and meaningful outcomes aligned with the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
«Today’s pressing environmental and social challenges threaten the political and economic stability of Asian economies and put the resilience of the regional finance sector at risk. By working on a multi-stakeholder basis alongside other science-based Knowledge Partners, we can facilitate an orderly transition to economies that deliver wellbeing to all people whilst protecting the natural capital on which all businesses and societies depend,» said Jeanne Stampe, the head of WWF’s Asia Sustainable Finance team and founder of ASFI.
