The business case for financial services aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the world’s development agenda, is not fundamentally different from the case for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations: they represent economic risks and opportunities.
The difference between ESG and the SDGs is that the former primarily represents considerations (e.g., climate change, gender and diversity) and associated methodologies for addressing these (e.g., exclusion, best-in-class selection) whereas the latter are goals (e.g., gender equality, affordable and clean energy).
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SDG Financial Products was launched at COP26 by GEFI and showcases commercial financial products that are aligned to the SDG in order to share learnings and grow the ecosystem of SDG aligned financial products across asset classes.
The SDG Impact Standards provide guidance on developing an appropriate strategy, management approach, transparency and governance to assist businesses and investors in contributing positively to sustainable development and achieving the SDGs. The Impact Standards also provide a decision-making framework to make sense of existing relevant principles, frameworks and tools.
