Climate Finance | November 29, 2017

Zurich boosts its climate-focused impact investing pledge

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After channeling $2 billion into environmental-impact investing in the past five years, the Swiss insurer plans to more than double its allocation to $5 billion for climate-related impact investments.

Most of its initial investments have been in green bonds — a market that just crossed the $100 billion mark. (Listen to ImpactAlpha’s Returns on Investment podcast interview with Manuel Lewin, Zurich’s head of responsible investing.)

The World Economic Forum estimates that $5.7 trillion needs to be shifted into green investing each year to put the world on a sustainable, climate-friendly development path. It seems that $5 billion is the magic number for institutional impact investment commitments this year.

Denmark recently launched a $5 billion Sustainable Development Goal-aligned fund, while Swiss banking giant UBS pledged to direct $5 billion in client capital toward SDG-focused impact investing.