September 25, 2019
Refinitiv Marks UN Climate Week with New Digital Finance Initiative & Sustainable Leadership Monitor at a Reception Hosting Members of the UN Secretary-General’s Task Force on Digital Financing of the Sustainable Development Goals
Refinitiv is a proud strategic partner for the United Nation Secretary General's Task Force on Digital Financing of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), charged with harnessing the potential of financial technology to advance the UN 2030 agenda.
NEW YORK/LONDON, September 25, 2019 – Refinitiv today announced the first fruits of its strategic partnership with the United Nations Secretary-General’s Task Force on Digital Financing of the Sustainable Development Goals (the Task Force) - a Digital Governance of Infrastructure (DGI) initiative and the Sustainable Leadership Monitor (SLM) - at a reception hosting members of the UN Task Force, held at Refinitiv’s Times Square offices.
David Craig, CEO of Refinitiv, said: “Earlier this year, we made several pledges in support of the SDGs. We believe that the private sector has a key role to play in the achievement of the SDGs, and we are honoured to be a strategic partner to the Task Force to harness the power of data to bring about insight and drive informed decision making. Providing investors with access to trusted, holistic information about global infrastructure – including macroeconomics, projects, markets, financing, and geopolitical and operational risk data – is absolutely critical to achieving the SDGs.”
The objective of the DGI initiative is to improve the alignment of investments with the SDGs through the use of digital, end-to-end mapping and builds upon the work Refinitiv have done with BRI Connect in mapping global Infrastructure projects.
“Infrastructure investment is emerging as a critical policy focus for the public sector,” added Craig. “But data transparency remains a key obstacle to growth in private sector funding. Working with the G20 and other multilateral and public entities to pursue policies focused on boosting private sector investment is therefore fundamental to addressing the infrastructure funding gap.”
The world faces an infrastructure investment gap, with capital allocation at levels significantly lower than what is required. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) estimates that meeting the SDGs will require ~$6.3T in annual investment immediately, increasing to ~$6.9T to meet the Paris Agreement goals.
To activate private investment the sector needs standardized, trusted and transparent data serving multiple use cases, at the degrees of granularity (and aggregation) needed to assess performance, returns and risk. Refinitiv can play a key role in framing and delivering this potential.
“Dr. Simon Zadek, principal of Project Catalyst at the United Nations Development Programme and an expert advisor to the Task Force, commented: “Digitalization can be harnessed in support of financing the SDGs. The Task Force’s partnership with Refinitiv is already showing how fintech can direct investment to SDG-aligned companies, and provide digital governance of infrastructure investment globally.”
The second sustainability initiative announced is the Sustainable Leadership Monitor (“SLM”). The SLM measures and reports on sustainability leadership across a deep range of financial, environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria. The SLM was developed in a partnership with the World Economic Forum (“WEF”), a Task Force partner, to use as a measurement framework with practical benchmarking capabilities powered by industry-leading ESG and financial data.
The SLM allows for companies to analyze the trajectory of their data versus that of their peers on more than 400 ESG measures. Companies can also receive timely updates, with ESG data updated weekly and financial analytical models updated daily. The tool also allows users to evaluate detailed company rankings with the ability to filter results by industry, country and market cap. They can also view the world map which illustrates the geographical distribution of companies chosen to be peer assessed, while accessing a universe of more than 7,000 companies with ESG data.
Debra Walton, Chief Revenue Officer at Refinitiv, said: “We have worked closely with the WEF and our partners to develop and bring this much needed benchmark to a wider audience. I am thrilled that we can now share this robust dataset and measurement tool with our clients so that they can visualize trends in specific ESG criteria against their peers and inform critical decisions that are both short-term, and long-term in nature. The SLM reflects Refinitiv’s commitment to enable our clients with specialized data and analytics tools that not only provide insight but also enable measurable action.”
Maha Eltobgy, Head of Investors and Infrastructure, Member of the Executive Committee, World Economic Forum, said: “The SLM is a comprehensive tool that draws information from a multitude of public sources to provide leaders with 400 data points on sustainability, governance, citizenship, and long-term financial performance. Through this effort, we are replacing simple belief in responsible business with insights about business impact driven by hard data.”
Refinitiv has been serving the financial industry with ESG data and solutions for over 15 years and offers one of the richest ESG databases in the industry – a fully transparent resource that is trusted by investors and corporates to drive positive impact and provide comprehensive analysis. As members of the UN Global Compact, Refinitiv is part of a community of 9,000+ businesses across 135 countries that are committed to operating with responsible business practices at its core.
Refinitiv is at the heart of an ecosystem of change-makers, empowering investors to shift towards sustainable finance initiatives and practices. We call it sustainable leadership.
To learn more about BRI Connect, please visit here.
To learn more about Sustainable Leadership, please visit here.
To learn more about Refinitiv’s Sustainability Leadership Monitor, please visit here.
To learn more about Refinitiv ESG offerings, please visit here.
About Refinitiv
Contacts
Lemuel Brewster
Refinitiv
Senior PR Director
+1 646-223-5147
+1 917-805-1089
Lemuel.brewster@refinitiv.com
