About us
Our history
GFANZ was launched in April 2021 by UN Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance Mark Carney and the COP26 presidency, in partnership with the UNFCCC Race to Zero campaign, to coordinate efforts across all sectors of the financial system to accelerate the transition to a net-zero global economy. UN Special Envoy for Climate Ambition and Solutions Michael R. Bloomberg joined Mark Carney as Co-Chair at COP26 and brought in former SEC Chairman and Head of the Secretariat for the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures Mary Schapiro to serve as Vice Chair and Head of the GFANZ Secretariat.
Our mission
GFANZ was founded for two equally important purposes: to expand the number of net zero-committed financial institutions and to establish a forum for addressing sector-wide challenges associated with the net-zero transition, helping to ensure high levels of ambition are met with credible action.
GFANZ brings together independent, sector-specific Alliances to tackle net-zero transition challenges and connects the financial community to the Race to Zero campaign, climate scientists and experts, and civil society.
GFANZ seeks to:
Broaden participation
Increase the number of firms with net-zero commitments within the financial sector and ensure that such institutions have a vehicle through which to set their own, independent, credible net-zero commitments
Raise ambition
Encourage firms to set commitments that are backed by robust targets and transition plans
Promote best practices and develop other voluntary approaches
Act as a forum across the sector-specific Alliances on pan-sector challenges, and support cross-fertilization mechanisms (where appropriate) between Alliances and their supporting organizations
Support collaboration
Support appropriate technical collaboration on substantive and cross-cutting challenges that will accelerate the alignment of investment and lending with net-zero targets
Showcase collective efforts
Highlight the collective efforts and achievements of the sector and of individual firms taking the most ambitious climate actions
Convene policymakers and senior Alliance members
Support discussion on how public and private sector action can be mutually supportive of the goals of the Paris Agreement
The Alliances and GFANZ
Firms are connected to GFANZ not through direct membership but via the sector-specific Alliance(s) to which they have signed on. Alliance members include more than 550 firms belonging to seven sector-specific net-zero Alliances from across the global financial sector. Alliance members include banks, insurers, asset owners, asset managers, financial service providers, and investment consultants. The members of each Alliance operate in a diverse range of economies and financial systems spanning the developed, emerging and developing world. [The Alliances and GFANZ are independent initiatives, and Alliances are subject only to their individual governance structures.]
Membership is via the sector-specific Alliances:
Our work
GFANZ provides financial firms with a global forum for collaborating on substantive, cross-cutting issues that will accelerate the alignment of financing activities with net zero.
Our work focuses on three core areas, each one critical to the net-zero transition:
Net-zero transition planning for financial institutions
Supporting efforts to translate net-zero pledges into actionable, near-term, science-based transition plans. Driving consistency and accountability by presenting common methodologies and resources that align business activities with 1.5°C pathways and net zero for the real economy.
Mobilizing capital for EM&DEs
Accelerating the deployment of capital to enable emerging markets and developing economies (EM&DEs) to decarbonize and prosper in a global net-zero economy.
Net-zero public policy
Leveraging GFANZ’s global scale to drive ambitious and credible public policies and regulations that enable the net-zero transition.
GFANZ runs a number of practitioner-led working groups designed to accelerate the alignment of investment, lending, and underwriting with net-zero transition plans.
Accelerating progress
August 2022 Measuring portfolio alignment
GFANZ publishes draft guidance on measuring portfolio alignment with the goals of the Paris Agreement.
June 2022 Transition plan guidance
GFANZ releases draft framework for financial institution net-zero transition plans.
June 2022 APAC Network
GFANZ forms regional network to support the expansion of net-zero finance across Asia.
June 2022 Climate Data Steering Committee
GFANZ launches group to advise on new open climate data platform.
November 2021 Leadership team expands
Michael R. Bloomberg joins as Co-Chair and Mary Schapiro becomes Vice Chair of GFANZ.
October 2021 GFANZ Call to Action
GFANZ publishes a call for greater and faster climate action from G20 leaders to build a net-zero global financial system and meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.
April 2021 GFANZ launches
GFANZ unites leading net-zero initiatives across the financial system in one sector-wide strategic forum.
Our leadership
Co-Chair, GFANZ
UN Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions
Co-Chair, GFANZ
UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance
Vice Chair, GFANZ
Head, GFANZ Secretariat
GFANZ reports periodically to the G20’s Financial Stability Board (FSB).
GFANZ Principals Group
The Principals Group sets strategic direction and priorities for GFANZ and monitors progress.
Principals Group Members
Principal Group Observers
GFANZ Advisory Panel
The Advisory Panel, composed of technical climate experts from nongovernmental organizations around the world, ensures that GFANZ’s work is held to the highest standards of ambition while keeping climate science at the heart of everything GFANZ does.
The Advisory Panel includes representatives from the following organizations: