Publications

In this op-ed published in a French economic newspaper, Benoit Leguet, director of I4CE, considers that the French Government must plan over the long term the necessary financing for climate change mitigation and adaptation, by instituting a public finance programming law for climate. France has set itself climate objectives, it must clarify what means it will devote to them.

Climate Action and Sustainable Development are two parts of the same challenge and must be addressed together. Both adopted in 2015, the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development frame a set of global objectives that are deeply connected.

Ian Cochran and Alice Pauthier explain why even with COVID19, public financial institutions (PFIs) must continue their important work on aligning their activities with climate and sustainability goals – and how their progress may be key to ensuring that the response to the crisis is both just and green.

Public development banks have a major role to play in the fight against climate change. Ian Cochran and Alice Pauthier from I4CE explain in this blogpost the principal technical and political challenges those finance institutions will need to overcome in aligning with the Paris Agreement objectives.

Aligning with the Paris Agreement: what does it mean for the International Development Finance Club?   International Development Finance Club Pavilion Saturday 7 December, 2-3:30 pm   The Paris Agreement has reframed climate action from a focus on the near-term incremental increase of adaptation and mitigation actions to emphasize the importance of the long-term transformation […]

On 25 October, a conference was held in Paris to “replenish” the resources of the Green Climate Fund. 27 countries have made pledges, for a total amount of nearly $10 billion. Good news? Insufficient? For Alice Pauthier of [i4ce], the impact of the Green Climate Fund should not only be assessed against this figure. The Fund also has a transformational effect, particularly on the many financial institutions that, in order to access its resources, must follow an accreditation process. A process that may well become more and more demanding.

  It therefore brings risks and opportunities for economic actors, which they must anticipate in order to optimise their strategy in a context of uncertainty. Against this backdrop, the use of scenarios – which are plausible representations of uncertain future states – is very useful in order to better understand the medium- and long-term challenges […]

It is no easy task to take climate risks – transition risks and physical risks – into account in financial management practices. As this note shows from the example of banking activities, the intrinsic characteristics of these risks – which are long-term and cannot be assigned a probability and for which there are no historical […]

In September 2019 in New York City, the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres convened a “United Nations Climate Action Summit” to increase the ambition and momentum of global climate action. While the outcomes of the Summit itself – particularly from country Parties – are seen as deeply disappointing, there are nevertheless a number of ‘silver linings’ to keep in mind on the road to Santiago. Alice Pauthier and Ian Cochran share four key ideas to focus efforts moving forward.

I4CE has just released a “framework for Alignment with the Paris Agreement”, Ian Cochran discusses here what “Alignment” simply means.

Ahead of the Climate Summit, Alice Pauthier from I4CE discuss the major issues of the Summit and related events happening in New York: beyond raising ambition, finance will be on the agenda. She will be in New York with Ian Cochran to present and discuss outcomes of I4CE’s latest report on Paris Alignment, a subject that everyone talks about… without sharing a common understanding of what it is and implies.

Since the adoption of the Paris Agreement, financial institutions and other economic actors have taken commitments to ‘align’ their activities with the goals agreed to by national governments in 2015. A growing body of literature from both the research community and practitioners has emerged on ‘alignment’ with the Paris Agreement goals – but to date […]

June 2019, the heat wave that affects France and part of Europe takes centre stage. However, we should be less and less surprised by this type of weather event which, with climate change, is becoming more and more common. To see this, take a look at the ClimatHD portal put online by Météo France to disseminate the main climate projections in France.

Since 2016, I4CE is the Secretariat of the Climate Action in Financial Institutions Initiative. Launched at COP21 in 2015, the Initiative brings together 44 public and private financial institutions to make climate change an essential component of their strategies & operations. Leveraging its expertise and network, I4CE assists the Initiative in fostering exchanges between the so-called “Supporting Institutions” on emerging practice and approaches to mainstream climate change.

Recent bankruptcy of Californian utility PG&E reckons that companies and their financial stakeholders are already exposed to the potential physical impacts of climate change, also called “physical climate risks”. While risk is at the heart of financial institutions decision-making, only a few of them disclose how their portfolios – with potential PG&Es – are exposed […]

The idea of creating a European Climate Bank is gaining ground. After being put on the table by the Climate Finance Pact and its many supporters, it is now included in French President Emmanuel Macron's "Letter to Europeans". With the European elections coming up soon, it is excellent news that financing the fight against climate change is on Europe's political agenda. However, is the best solution a new European financial institution?

The One Planet Lab meets for the first time on Monday, March 4, in Paris. But what is this Lab? I4CE, which together with IDDRI is in charge of the scientific secretariat of the Lab, provides some basic answers.

COP24 in Katowice just ended and was marked by the difficult adoption of a package of practical rules - the Katowice Climate Package - on transparency, the content of national contributions or their revision. It was also a COP marked by deep concerns about the willingness of Signatory Countries to increase their climate ambition in the coming years. Currently, countries' commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will lead to global warming well above 2°C, the threshold above which our climate would jump into the unknown.

Financial institutions are already exposed to the potential physical impacts of climate change also called “physical climate risks” in finance. These require immediate attention from financial institutions, in order to understand how well prepared are the economic actors that they finance.   Yet financial institutions still lack tailored information to analyze their exposure to these […]

At the Global Climate Action Summit, the Climate Action in Financial Institutions Initiative released a Joint Statement demonstrating how financial institutions are supporting local climate action.