Footprint Network Blog - Footprint Standards
UNEP FI Project Launch Follow Up
The joint project between the UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) and Global Footprint Network to assess the financial materiality of ecological risk was launched at the UN Foundation in Washington DC on 17 October 2011. Opening remarks from Paul Clements-Hunt (Head of UNEP FI) and Susan Burns (Senior Vice President of Global Footprint Network) showed a clear commitment from both organisations to this potentially ground breaking project. Richard Burrett, of Earth Capital Partners, also gave an inspiring presentation detailing not only the importance of this project but also how investors currently perceive the financial relevance of natural resources.
It is clear that the tightening constraints on resources and their potential impacts on national economies are not included within current financial analysis. Yet such factors are thought to have growing implications for the long-term credit risk of many government bonds, especially those with long-dated maturities.
A host of financial institutions were in attendance at the launch and participated in a stimulating discussion around the evidence base to show that ecological risks are becoming material for economies and how key ecological data can be linked to the financial and economic indicators. This project will endeavour to shine a light on such questions to explore the role of natural resource accounting in strengthening risk models for government bonds.
Global Footprint Network and UNEP FI would like to thank all those who participated in the launch event and invite any other institutions who are interested to join the project.
For more information please see the project brochure or contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Categories:
Carbon Footprint, Ecological Limits, Footprint for Government, Footprint Standards, Personal Footprint
Participate in the 2012 Ecological Footprint Standards
Global Footprint Network is the standard setting body for the only Ecological Footprint standards in the world. The Ecological Footprint standards set forth quality criteria for Ecological Footprint studies of sub-national populations, organizations, and products. The goal of the Ecological Footprint Standards is to build consensus among practitioners regarding Ecological Footprint methodology, transparency, and communications. This consensus is important because it helps to establish a forum or a common platform for understanding and communicating about natural resource constraints. To that end, the Ecological Footprint Standards are used as a way of maintaining the scientific credibility and accuracy of Ecological Footprint studies, the policy relevance, and the consistency and appropriateness with which the method is applied and findings communicated.
Global Footprint Network’s Ecological Footprint Standards have been established through a committee-based process that incorporates input from our Partnership Network and Public Comment. The Global Footprint Network Standards Committee is starting the process to review and revise the Ecological Footprint Standards. Participation in the Committee and Procedures for the Committee are outlined in Global Footprint Network Committees Charter. The result of this process will be updates to the 2009 Ecological Footprint Standards to be released towards the end of 2012.
Improving comparability The original goal of the Ecological Footprint Standards is to increase the quality, reliability and consistency of Footprint assessments. As the Ecological Footprint is being adopted by a growing number of government agencies, organizations and communities as a measure of environmental performance, there is an even greater need for quality, consistency, and reliability. This review and revision process for the 2012 Ecological Footprint Standards is a way to maintain this goal of improving comparability.
In addition, as the Ecological Footprint methodology is applied in different circumstances by different practitioners, advances to the methodology and communications strategies are being made. Conducting a review and revision process every three years allows Global Footprint Network to stay on top of advances in Ecological Footprint science and application. By engaging with experts, our Partner Network, and public comment every three years, our Ecological Footprint Standards can allow for a dynamic process that encourages innovation and action.
Global Footprint Network is actively seeking input from our Partner Network and Public Comment We invite interested parties to review our Ecological Footprint Standards and submit comments and recommendations for updates to be considered by the Standards Committee. The Standards Committee will start discussions in November, 2011. If you have suggestions that you would like the Standards Committee to consider, please send your input to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Your feedback is welcome during the entire process! Before the revised Standards are finalized in 2012, there will be two 60-day Public Review periods, one in March – May 2012 and the second in July – September 2012. These are your opportunities to provide more input as the draft develops.
Categories:
Carbon Footprint, Ecological Limits, Footprint for Government, Footprint Standards, Human Development, Our Partners’ Work, Personal Footprint
Including Ecological Risk in Country’s Credit Ratings
UNEP FI project seeks framework for assessing government bonds
Could an abundance of natural wealth be a factor in positively influencing a country’s credit rating and the quality of its bonds? Could a resource-guzzling economy be cause for a downgrade?
The UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) in collaboration with Global Footprint Network and leading financial institutions will endeavor to shine a light on these questions with a groundbreaking project to explore the role of natural resource accounting in strengthening risk models for government bonds. The project seeks to incorporate how much natural wealth countries have – and how much they spend – into assessments of long-term credit risk.
Tightening constraints on resources and their potential impacts on national economies have been largely absent from financial analysis. Yet such factors are thought to have growing implications for the long-term credit risk of many government bonds, especially those with long-dated maturities.
“The global financial crisis has taught us more than anything that some of the core risks that affect the value of debt securities and derivatives can simply run ahead of our ability to understand them,” said Paul Clements-Hunt, Head of UNEP FI. “This is why we must deepen our understanding of the risks posed by climate change, water scarcity and the overuse of natural resources for securities. We should not be caught off-guard again. This project is one of the first that tries to quantitatively and systematically consider the linkages between the use of natural resources and its impact on a country’s core economic indicators that in turn influence the quality of its bonds.”
The bond project was launched yesterday at workshop at a side-event to the UNEP FI Global Roundtable, which is taking place in Washington D.C. this week. The Roundtable draws hundreds of leading financial experts along with high-level government officials seeking to address the link between financial stability and environmental sustainability.
The project has two aims: it will investigate the linkages between ecological risk and country-level risk in sovereign bonds, and develop a methodology to explore how credit rating agencies, investors and financial information providers can integrate ecological data into their respective models. In particular, the analysis will look at the risks to countries whose populations and/or industries require more resources than is domestically available and which are hence reliant on ecological services from abroad.
“As resource constraints tighten globally, countries that depend heavily on ecological services from other nations may find that their resource supply becomes insecure and unreliable. This has economic implications – in particular for countries that depend upon large amounts of ecological assets to power their key industries or to support their consumption patterns and lifestyles,” said Global Footprint Network President Mathis Wackernagel. “Meanwhile, those countries with reserves of valuable natural capital may find themselves in an advantageous position.”
The project will substantiate the business case for financial institutions and ratings agencies to include ecological criteria as a key component of financially material country credit risk analysis. Institutions will thus be enabled to work towards better inclusion of financially-material environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues in financial products and services.
Learn More Read the Investment & Pension Europe article: Forests into Fixed Income.
Categories:
Ecological Limits, Footprint for Business, Footprint for Government, Footprint Standards, Human Development, Our Partners’ Work
Public Comment Period Open on New Footprint Standards
The Ecological Footprint Standards Committee is inviting public comment on its proposed 2009 Ecological Footprint Standards. The standards are designed to ensure that Ecological Footprint assessments are produced consistently and according to community-proposed best-practices. These new methodological standards focus on Ecological Footprint studies for organizations and products. They were created over the past six months by the Ecological Footprint Standards Committee and the Standards Working Group.
Categories:
Footprint Standards
Call for Abstracts
Footprint Forum’s Academic Conference: The State of the Art in Ecological Footprint Theory and Applications
Wednesday, June 9 2010: 2:00 pm – 6:00 pm, dinner at 8:00 pm
Thursday, June 10 2010: 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm (breakout session of public conference)
An event of the Footprint Forum: Meet the Winners of the 21st Century. Colle Val d’Elsa, 7-12 June 2010
Global Footprint Network is calling for abstracts for presentation at the Academic Conference of the Footprint Forum: Meet the Winners of the 21st Century to be held June 7-12, 2010, in Colle di Val d’Elsa, Italy, just outside of Siena, Italy. Submissions are welcome on issues pertinent to biocapacity and Ecological Footprint. Abstracts will be selected for presentation. If your abstract is selected, you will have the opportunity to speak at the session for up to 15 minutes, followed by at least 10 minutes of discussion. In addition, a special issue of Ecological Indicators will include extended versions of a selection of papers presented at Footprint Forum.
About Footprint Forum:
Copenhagen – COP15 – showed us that national governments and political leaders are finding it difficult to act collectively in the global interest. Global Footprint Network is convinced that climate action will only gather momentum once nations see that decisive action is in their own best interest. This compelling self-interest story becomes obvious once we understand climate change in the context of ecological resource constraints, as one of a number of related crises – food, energy, water, biodiversity, and so forth – emerging from humanity’s systematic overuse of available resources. This reframing presents a great impetus for transformation. The focus of Footprint Forum 2010 is on how we can capitalize on this opportunity.
Learn more about Footprint Forum.
Details of Submission:
Proposed topics should focus on NEW developments on the Ecological Footprint in areas of:
1. Theory;
2. Applications; or
3. Communication/policy relevance.
All submissions must be a two-page abstract, and include an introduction, summary of methods and results, and a discussion section.
Click here to download the template.
Click here to download the abstract submission format and guidelines
Note: If your abstract is not selected, you will have the option of having it presented as a poster at the Forum.
Email submissions to footprintforum2010@unisi.it . Deadline for submission is 31 March 2010.
Categories:
Footprint Standards
New Data Shows Humanity’s Ecological Debt Compounding
At the current rate humanity is using natural resources and producing waste, by the mid-2030s we will require the resources of two planets to meet our demands, according to figures released today by Global Footprint Network. The data comes at a critical time, as the economic crisis felt around the globe has made it painstakingly clear: Debt and overspending can continue for a while but ultimately have dire consequences.
Categories:
Ecological Limits, Footprint for Government, Footprint Standards, Human Development
Footprint a Centerpiece of Europe’s Beyond GDP Conference
GDP is the most recognized indicator in the world, but a country’s high GDP does not always mean that its people are doing well. This is the reason that over 500 high-level economic, social and environmental experts met at the historic Beyond GDP International Conference in Brussels in late November. The European Commission, European Parliament, Club of Rome, OECD and WWF hosted this high-level conference with the objectives of clarifying which indices are most appropriate to measure progress, and how these can best be integrated into the decision-making process and taken up by public debate. The Ecological Footprint was featured as a central alternative to the GDP at the conference, most notably in a keynote address by WWF’s President and former minister of Nigeria, Emeka Anyaoku.
Categories:
Footprint for Government, Footprint Standards, Our Partners’ Work
What exactly is the Carbon Footprint?
Carbon dioxide is emitted whenever human activities involve the burning of fossil fuels. This waste will accumulate in the atmosphere, contributing to global climate change, unless it can be captured and stored by plants. The carbon Footprint therefore measures the demand on biocapacity that results from burning fossil fuels in terms of the amount of forest area required to sequester these carbon dioxide emissions. Note that this does not suggest planting forests is the ‘solution’ to climate change; on the contrary, it shows that the biosphere does not have sufficient capacity to sequester all the carbon we are currently emitting.
Categories:
Carbon Footprint, Footprint Standards