The Carbon Bankroll

“The Race to Zero relies on mobilizing action from every available angle to galvanize alignment. Harnessing the latent agency of companies to transform the sustainability of financial supply chains could play a pivotal role in decarbonizing finance flows and redirecting long term investments in the real economy.” - Nigel Topping, UN High Level Climate Action Champion, COP26

The Carbon Bankroll, co-authored by the Climate Safe Lending Network, The Outdoor Policy Outfit, and BankFWD, highlights the climate impact of cash and the potential power to transform financial supply chains. It’s easy to slip into thinking about money ‘in the bank’ as being literally ‘in’ the bank. But the financial system doesn’t work that way. Ultimately, if you follow the money then it will lead to real economy impacts — both positive and negative — through the underlying activities which are financed. When you take the cash that businesses hold — in particular global businesses — those sums of money and potential impacts can add up quickly. Corporate treasury departments use cash and investments to fund their business. But as it passes through the financial system, those funds are used to finance the long-term investment decisions that will shape and define our economy for decades to come.

For some of the world’s largest corporations, it turns out that the climate impact associated with their cash and investments is bigger than everything else they do to address climate emissions across their entire extended operations. Billions of dollars in cash and investments that major corporations have on their balance sheet are invested through the financial system into activities with a climate impact comparable in size to everything else companies, like Apple, Microsoft, Meta, and Google, do to make their supply chains more socially responsible and environmentally sustainable.

Redirecting the flows of finance away from high-carbon activities and towards climate solutions can open up transition pathways, making it easier for all companies to get to net zero. By mobilizing the power to transform their financial supply chains, there’s a massive opportunity for companies to lead the change, working with banks and other financial institutions to accelerate decarbonization of the real economy.

Find out how companies and financial institutions can work together to rapidly redirect cash and investments into climate solutions that can super-charge a global transition for everyone.