This publication is part of a series by the
Portfolio Carbon Initiative (PCI). It aims
to inform the ongoing debate about how
public- and private-sector banks should
assess and report on the climate progress
of their portfolios. It builds on a multistakeholder
process that, in 2013, began to standardize
the accounting of Scope 3 “financed emissions”
(see Annex A). During that process, some financial
institutions questioned the meaningfulness
and practicality of the financed emissions metric.
To respond to these concerns, PCI partner organizations
agreed to perform a broader assessment
of the various metrics available to help financial
institutions report on their impacts on climate
change and their contributions (both negative and
positive) to the transition toward a low-carbon
economy. This paper follows a 2015 sister publication
for investors: Climate Strategies and Metrics:
Exploring Options for Institutional Investors.
Both these papers are based on a broad PCI
review of the metrics that financial institutions
are using to publicly report on climate progress.