ABN AMRO signs Biodiversity Pledge
- Sustainability
In early December, ABN AMRO signed the Finance for Biodiversity Pledge. This commitment was also announced during the EU Business for Nature event. Financial institutions signing the Pledge promise to contribute to the recovery and protection of ecosystems. The Pledge kicked off on 25 September of this year with the signatures of 26 financial institutions worldwide. This number now stands at 37.
Biodiversity is falling sharply, in the Netherlands and worldwide. This became apparent froma key UN report on biodiversity in 2019. In the report the IPBES, a biodiversity and ecosystem services platform with a membership of 130 countries, took stock of the situation around the natural world and diversity. The findings were shocking and alarming.
A growing number of banks, insurers and pension funds are realising that the decline inbiodiversity presents a serious risk – also to the investment world. The institutions signing the Finance for Biodivesity Pledge want to achieve five goals by 2024. These include knowledge-sharing, identifying the impact of finance and investments on biodiversity, and transparent communication on both the positive and negative aspects of this.
Richard Kooloos, Director Group Sustainability commented: “The loss of biodiversity is one of the biggest and most urgent challenges of our time. It calls for more awareness and action, from financial institutions too. Signing the Pledge is the first step in this for ABN AMRO.”