By Marcelo Pasquini, Head of Sustainability at Bradesco.
According to the Global Risks Report, released at the last World Economic Forum, the climate crisis continues to be one of the most impactful global risks.
In August of this year, practically 3 months before COP 26 (Climate Conference in Glasgow – Scotland), the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), the world's most authoritative body on climate science, released its sixth report showing that the world is likely to reach or exceed 1.5°C of warming in the coming years, especially in the next two decades, ahead of the timeframe and projections of previous assessments. The report makes clear that only ambitious emissions cuts will keep global temperature rise to 1.5°C, the limit set by scientists to prevent the most severe climate impacts.
It is worth noting that all this acceleration in relation to warming has been caused by human practices, which intensify the generation of emissions and, if they continue at this rate, according to the IPCC (2021), the world could warm up to 5.7ºC by 2100 and present catastrophic results. It is important to remember that it was at COP 21, in 2015, that we had the global consensus that climate change was caused by human actions. This consensus was based on science.
It is in this aspect that the importance of collective commitment stands out, where everyone has a fundamental role in combating climate change. We are currently in the context of COP 26, whose main challenge is to enable the implementation of concrete plans to maintain the temperature increase limit at 1.5ºC.
In this context, nations are expected to commit to more than targets, but to concrete plans to reduce emissions necessary to limit global warming.
As a representative of the financial sector, we can say that the climate crisis is changing the market as a whole. Investment risks generated by global warming are accelerating a reallocation of capital, impacting the pricing of risk and assets. We know that climate risk is a financial risk, but we also know that the transition to a low-carbon economy represents a huge business opportunity.
As protagonists of this positive impact agenda, we became the first financial institution in Brazil to join the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), committing to a carbon neutral credit portfolio by 2050. This was not an overnight decision, but an evolution of our climate strategy.
We have reached a new level of climate management and we continue to engage and support our clients to adapt their businesses, promoting a more efficient, sustainable and resilient economy to climate change.
This is a collective agenda, only together will we achieve our purpose!
