Asset Management Group – members
from the asset management are practitioners that deal with money
and decisions. They come together and committed to build the
link between community and the finance sector. They now have
17 main-stream analysts to look into five sectors and respond
to social and environmental issues relevant to their profession.
The group is also looking at the legislation and regulatory
of Pension Funds.
Climate Change Group – climate
change poses major risks to the natural environment, and to
society, in terms of damage to economic system and human health.
If current trends persist, the annual loss amounts within the
next decade will be at US150 billion. The insurance sector is
involved in all aspects of economic activity and is affected
by environmental and social issues. It can be the major driven
force in meeting the challenges posed by climate change. The
formation of this group is the first time that a series of finance
sector come out and address this issue seriously. The working
group is now trying to develop finance methodology to deal with
the problem.
Environmental Management Reporting
– the working group is a unique voluntary initiative aimed
at the development of international guidelines on environmental
management and reporting for the financial sector. The aim of
this group is to finalize the reporting rationale under one
globally acceptable standard. To produce financial sector specific
best practice indicators that can be integrated into the GRI’s
Financial Sector Supplement, and to produce environmental management
and reporting guidance for financial service companies.
Finance System Group – The
working group aims at setting up regulations in finance sector.
They will try to push practitioners in different district to
comply with those regulations.
On January 8, 2003, UNEP FI organized a Ratings Roundtable in
Paris to discuss the issue of non-financial risk and its implications
for the rating industry. They look at the way mainstream raters
consider or don’t consider sustainability. The mainstream
raters maintained that non-financial ratings and credit/equity
ratings should remain separated. And they need qualitative in
their non-financial ratings. Tools like GRI that provides standardized
measures should be properly employed and uniformly applied.
In February 2003, UNEP FI has another event on environmental
disclosures in New York. As the whole trend of the world is
encouraging more disclosure, the event query about whether the
legal and regulatory system is too vaguely in defining environmental
information. Different sectors have considered different potential
challenge.
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