The Climate Bonds Initiative, the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) and the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) announced a collaboration to support global interoperability and implementation of sustainable finance taxonomies and other frameworks.

The collaboration aims to build consensus on taxonomy definitions and concepts among standard setters, policymakers, and taxonomy users, support the development of taxonomies and provide tools for implementation.

Climate Bonds CEO Sean Kidney said that “Taxonomies of sustainable finance are the building block of sustainable finance markets – they are, essentially, ‘shopping lists’ for investments for a sustainable future. They provide simple guidance for investors, banks and corporates, making easier for capital to flow to climate solutions.”

Liesel van Ast, Deputy Head of UNEP FI, noted that “sustainable finance taxonomies play an important role in promoting and providing a common language for sustainable finance, with over 40 jurisdictions developing and implementing them across the world. Users and developers can benefit from support to enhance usability, interoperability, and cross border capital flows. The Common Framework of Sustainable Finance Taxonomies for Latin America and the Caribbean(link is external) is an example of regional collaboration to develop guidance for taxonomy interoperability across jurisdictions, and we look forward to further harmonised approaches through this collaboration.”

Nathan Fabian, PRI’s chief sustainable systems officer, said “the PRI has been engaging with investors on the implementation and use of sustainable finance taxonomies since their early inception, most notably for the EU taxonomy. Enhancing the usability and interoperability of sustainable finance taxonomies is crucial to ensure well-functioning financial markets that collectively contribute to climate and broader environmental goals”

The three organisations will support the ongoing development of taxonomies that cover emissions reduction, climate resilience and other environmental objectives, and the provision of tools that assist interoperability and usability across sustainable finance frameworks.

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CBI, PRI and UNEP FI have extensive sustainable finance experience in all major economies, including technical development of taxonomies, policy implementation, and public sector project support.

The collaboration will also result in the development of a taxonomy resource centre which will provide concrete support tools for taxonomy developers and users, facilitate the integration of taxonomies within broader regulatory frameworks and work with other relevant stakeholders contributing to taxonomy developments to enable private finance for sustainable development to scale up across the globe.