The Bank of America and the University of Oxford pledge £1.2 million to support greenhouse gas removal and sustainable finance research
Transforming the financial service sector to achieve sustainable finance means bringing environmental data into financial decision-making.
In a finance-academia collaboration, researchers have pledged £1.2 million to support greenhouse gas removal and sustainable finance research.
Sustainable finance is a set of financial regulations, standards, norms and products which can pursue an environmental objective to facilitate the clean energy transition. As many industries are high-carbon polluters, adapting to clean energy is necessary to keep the world at the ideal 1.5°C warming limit.
The financial service sector is another industry making the move to net-zero
Now, combatting climate change, this research can adapt decisions made in the financial services sector and offer implementable interventions to ensure business models are sustainable.
With over 3 years of research, the collaboration focuses on 2 key research areas to enable schools, and later, financial sectors, to seize pioneering sustainable research opportunities.
What are the two research areas in sustainable finance?
- The integration of nature-related factors and the use of climate and environmental data into financial decision-making
- Identifying greenhouse gas removal solutions working with the Greenhouse Gas Removal Hub (CO₂RE).
Generally, sustainable research opportunities go unfunded. This research initiative has two teams to make financial sustainability have monetary value.
While one team of researchers will be based at the Greenhouse Gas Removal Hub (CO₂RE), focussing on taking greenhouse gases back out of the air in ways that are economically, socially, and environmentally scalable – the other research team will be based at both the Oxford Sustainable Finance Group at the Smith School and the UK Centre for Greening Finance and Investment (CGFI).
They will focus on spatial finance and the integration of nature-related factors into financial decision-making.
Green recovery plans in global financial institutions
Bernard Mensah, President of international at Bank of America said: “Successful partnerships between business, academia and governments are critical if we are to accelerate the transition to sustainable, secure and affordable energy and bring forward the path to net-zero.
“With the support of Bank of America, the work of the Oxford Smith School now has the potential to transform scalable carbon capture and greenhouse gas removal and the integration of nature-based metrics into sustainable finance frameworks.
“We are delighted to be able to help advance research with the potential to unlock completely new information and ideas that could help financial institutions and their clients attain a sustainable trajectory by 2030.”
Professor Cameron Hepburn, Director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, further said: “We are delighted to partner with Bank of America in these two research partnerships. We are also hugely grateful for their gift to the University.
This partnership will enable us to expand Smith School research in sustainable finance and greenhouse gas removal, both of which are critical as we move from an era of climate change debate, to one of action.”
