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Global banks plan joint effort to meet Paris climate change agreement goals

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Global banks plan joint effort to meet Paris climate change agreement goals

More than 20 global banks plan to work together on developing banking standards to help lenders meet goals set by the United Nations and the Paris Agreement on climate change, the UN's Environment Programme Finance Initiative said.

The 26 lenders will work with the UN body to encourage banks to take a more active role in sustainable finance, set the global benchmark for sustainable banking and help lenders implement measures that will help them meet the objectives of the 2015 Paris agreement, which aims to limit global temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and the UN's sustainable development goals. It also plans to help banks be more accountable and transparent regarding climate change risk.

"Similar to the role the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) play for asset managers and the Principles for Sustainable Insurance (PSI) for insurance underwriters, these standards will address the longstanding need for an umbrella framework to cover all aspects of sustainable banking," the UN body said.

The group will develop the standards along with banking associations, regulators, other UN bodies and civil society organizations. Their first meeting took place in London in late April, and they will launch the draft principles for global consultation in Paris in November.

The group includes some of Europe's largest banks, among them U.K.-based Barclays PLC; France's Société Générale SA and BNP Paribas SA; Spain-based Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA; and Dutch lender ING Groep NV. Other countries with participating banks are Mexico, Brazil, Ecuador, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, Sweden, Greece, Turkey, Mongolia, South Korea, China, Australia and India.