PCAF – measuring the carbon footprint of investments and loans
PCAF was founded by fourteen Dutch financial institutions as the Platform for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF) via a Dutch Carbon Pledge at the Paris Climate Summit in 2015. PCAF institutions work together to jointly develop open-source methodologies to measure the carbon footprint of their investments and loans. By measuring and disclosing this information, PCAF institutions develop effective strategies to contribute to a low carbon society. PCAF is organized by a steering committee comprised of representatives of ABN AMRO, Amalgamated Bank, ASN Bank, Global Alliance for Banking on Values (GABV) and Triodos Bank.
“PCAF is tried and tested in the Netherlands, providing value to financial institutions, their clients, and other climate initiatives. Now, PCAF is going global.”
Kees van Dijkhuizen, CEO of ABN AMROPublic Methodology
The report contains methodologies for calculating the CO2 impact for listed shares, project financing, government bonds, mortgages, corporate loans, and real estate. The measurement method is based on measurement methods from the international protocol of the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD). These methods comprise the international standard for measuring greenhouse gas emissions. The report is open source and available to everyone so that all financial institutions can measure their CO2 impact.
Global initiative
The open-access, free-of-charge PCAF initiative allows banks and investors all across the world to assess the GHG emissions of their portfolios on the path to aligning their business strategies with the Paris Climate Agreement. Since its founding at the 2015 Paris Climate Summit, PCAF institutions have worked together to jointly develop open-source methodologies to measure the carbon footprint of their investments and loans. Since 2018, PCAF institutions have quantified the emissions impact associated with these assets for a total of $1.2 trillion USD. In September 2019 PCAF announced that more than 50 financial institutions worldwide, representing 2.9 trillion dollars in assets, have committed themselves to assess and disclose the GHG emissions of their loans and investments.
