Delivered in collaboration with McKinsey, this session from the Climate Governance Initiative Financial Sector Hub helps non-executive directors of financial institutions understand how to manage the risk of greenwashing in the context of increasing sustainable finance commitments. Banks have significantly increased their commitments in the past 3 years ($9.5tn of green financing commitments made by top ~50 banks and $1tn of sustainable bonds issued by banks globally since 2020). Alongside this, climate-related activism has also increased significantly (8x increase in number of shareholder resolutions against banks since 2020 and a sharp rise in climate litigation), intensifying the need for the Board’s focus on mitigating greenwashing risk.
We debate best practices to put controls in place prior to making public announcements and key points that a Board should focus on when making such commitments.
This event was hosted by Francesca Tondi Guy, former banker, and non-executive Director and ESG Committee Chair of UniCredit Group and of Piraeus Bank, and moderated by Johan Raslan former Chairman, PwC Malaysia, Council member, Climate Governance Malaysia and board member, Institute of Corporate Directors Malaysia, with expert contributors:
- Angela Luget, Partner, McKinsey & Company London
- Mark Azoulay, Partner, McKinsey & Company
- Claudia Kruse, Managing Director Global Responsible Investment＆ Governance, APG Asset Management
- Martina de Lind van Wijngaarden, Partner, Freshfields