My favourite announcement at January’s Davos World Economic Forum 2020 was the launch of the Future of Sustainability Data Alliance with the likes of Refinitiv, the Climate Bonds Initiative, the Global Financial Markets Association and many others spanning academia, policy-setting, NGOs and fintech around the world.
Its goal is to consolidate social and environmental data for the capital markets, to highlight gaps in the data and understand what will be needed as standards are set.
It’s a huge relief because we have reached a point where data has become fractured. It’s also refreshing to have such an early commitment to develop data in a way that will be useful. Sherry Madera, global head of industry and government affairs at Refinitiv, points out that 90% of the data in use now has only been around for the last two years.
As it develops, “we need to think about what will be needed to satisfy regulators and investors in the years ahead,” she says.
It is this quest for standardization that the financial and regulatory communities are all longing for in sustainability.
That quest has also obviously been playing on the mind of Bank of America chief executive Brian Moynihan.
