In­vest­ment for a Sus­tain­able Re­cov­ery

A De­clar­a­tion of In­tent – In­vest­ment for a Sus­tain­able Re­cov­ery was signed on the 25th Septem­ber by what rep­res­ents around 80% of the Iceland­ic Fin­ance sec­tor and the Iceland­ic gov­ern­ment.

The de­clar­a­tion is a unique, joint ini­ti­at­ive by the private sec­tor and the gov­ern­ment to bet­ter high­light a co­ordin­ated dir­ec­tion to­wards a sus­tain­able in­vest­ments and al­loc­a­tion of cap­it­al dur­ing post COV­ID-19 re­cov­ery.

The De­clar­a­tion of In­tent was fa­cil­it­ated by Festa – Centre for So­cial Re­spons­ib­il­ity and Sus­tain­ab­il­ity, The Ice­land­ic Fin­an­cial Ser­vices As­so­ci­ation (SFF) and The Ice­land­ic Pen­sion Funds As­so­ci­ation (LL) and writ­ten in part­ner­ship with ma­jor stake­hold­ers in the fin­ance sec­tor and the Prime Min­is­ter’s Of­fice.

De­clar­a­tion of In­tent – In­vest­ment for a Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment 

Be­cause fin­ance is a ma­jor driver of em­ploy­ment gen­er­a­tion, the eco­nomy and so­ci­ety in gen­er­al, al­loc­a­tion of in­vest­ment and cap­it­al de­term­ines to a large ex­tent the com­pet­it­ive­ness of coun­tries and the fu­ture of com­ing gen­er­a­tions. In this re­spect, in­vestors, fin­an­cial un­der­tak­ings, in­sti­tu­tions and gov­ern­ments play a vi­tal role in shap­ing busi­nesses and so­ci­et­ies.

We, the sig­nat­or­ies of this de­clar­a­tion, be­lieve that sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment is one of the fun­da­ment­al ele­ments on which de­cisions about fund­ing al­loc­a­tions, in­vest­ments and lend­ing should be based. Sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment main­tains a bal­ance between the needs of the en­vir­on­ment, so­ci­ety and eco­nomy and through con­scious, tar­geted ac­tions, fund­ing al­loc­a­tions, in­vest­ments and lend­ing can help en­sure sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment.

The ex­tens­ive con­sequences of COV­ID-19 fur­ther em­phas­ise the im­port­ance of mak­ing sus­tain­ab­il­ity a guid­ing prin­ciple in the re­con­struc­tion ef­forts ahead.

In our de­cisions we bear in mind Ice­land‘s in­ter­na­tion­al com­mit­ments in this re­gard and tar­gets ad­op­ted by the gov­ern­ment. Among them is the goal of mak­ing Ice­land car­bon-neut­ral by 2040, the Par­is Agree­ment’s tar­get to re­duce GHG emis­sions so that glob­al tem­per­at­ure rise will not ex­ceed 1,5 de­grees and to achieve the Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

De­pend­ing on the nature of the or­gan­isa­tion, we fol­low the ESG cri­ter­ia, UN Prin­ciples for Re­spons­ible Bank­ing (UN PRB), UN Prin­ciples of Re­spons­ible In­vest­ments (UN PRI), UN Glob­al Com­pact, etc.

We fur­ther­more com­mit to pub­lish­ing our policies on re­spons­ible and sus­tain­able in­vest­ments, fund­ing al­loc­a­tions and lend­ing and to dis­close in­form­a­tion about our ac­tions in this re­gard.

* The im­ple­ment­a­tion of this state­ment by in­vestors will by defin­i­tion take in­to ac­count ap­plic­able law, in­tern­al rules and the in­vest­ment man­date of each in­vestor. Any ap­plic­a­tion of this state­ment must, as a mat­ter of course, take in­to ac­count ap­plic­able law, in­tern­al rules and the in­vest­ment man­date of each in­vestor.

Re­leased: 25 Septem­ber 2020

 

De­clar­a­tion of In­tent – sig­na­tures (pdf)