History and projection of CO2 emissions
Did you know that our planet has existed for ~5 billion years, and humanity for "only" 200,000 years? The increase in the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere (measured in ppm) leads to a warming of the climate, but for millions of years, the concentration has only varied between 190 ppm (ice ages) and 260 ppm (warm periods).
Since 1850 and the beginning of industrial civilization, we have gone from 280 to 414 ppm in 2020, mainly due to the use of fossil fuels, even though they have allowed our societies to develop.
One of the challenges of sustainable finance today is to finance a fair transition towards an economy less dependent on fossil fuels.
Data from the observatory
Transformation of financial practices and flows
Discover the aggregated data measuring the transformation of 5 financial activities: insurance, banks, private equity, management companies and specialized companies, representing more than 80% of French assets.
Commitments monitoring of financial actors
A unique database of more than 350 voluntary companies that have made commitments to climate change and sustainable management of their portfolios. Discover the follow-up and a decoding of the commitments in the reading grids.
The Observatory in key figures
100 +
CHARTS ANALYZING SUSTAINABLE FINANCE ON THE OBSERVATORY5
PROFESSIONAL FEDERATIONS PARTNERSWhy an Observatory?
Assessing the impact of financial sector initiatives on the real economy:
How to know if the French financial sector is financing the transition to a sustainable economy, compatible with the Paris agreements? The Observatory is a transparency initiative in which the vast majority of the French financial sector participates via their professional federations: AFG, ASF, FBF, FFA and France Invest. Supported by a European LIFE grant, Finance for tomorrow, the project leader, is also working on this project in coordination with the members of the Finance Climact project: Ademe, IC2E, CGDD, AMF and ACPR, as well as the Ministry of the Economy and Finance, which is the project sponsor. A Scientific Committee is also attached to the Observatory.
A scientific and expert committee
The Observatory's Scientific and Expert Committee, an independent body that ensures the scientific rigor of the project, has issued two publications of recommendations this year. The first was on coal and the Observatory's indicators, and the second in September on non-conventional and alignment strategies. The first recommendations led to numerous exchanges with the professional federations and to changes in the Observatory, notably in the detail of the value chain of coal policies and in the perspective of the data on the Observatory website.
Read moreA triple governance
The role of the Observatory's Steering Committee is to ensure that the project is carried out properly by making sure that the Observatory's work and achievements are transparent and disseminated. It defines the indicators to reflect the actions and achievements of financial actors in terms of sustainable finance. It communicates its work with the Scientific Committee, which makes recommendations. These are then examined and added to if they are deemed relevant and feasible. As the platform's architect, it can propose modifications to the project's orientations and objectives, which it submits to the Finance ClimAct Steering Committee, which ensures that the project's strategy remains in line with the framework note established with the European Union as part of the LIFE grant.
Read moreResources published by the actors
Find publications from project members and their own members that help the transformation of the sector.
Publications