The ESG Leaders Forum (ELF) is a practitioner-led initiative to further embed ESG integration into the UK and Chinese investment community and to promote the best practice that can be replicated in both markets. Facilitated by joint leadership between City of London Corporation and Beijing Institute of Financial Services (BIFS), ELF will allow ESG practitioners to participate in targeted workstreams aimed at increasing uptake of ESG practices in UK and China.
The ESG Leaders Forum (ELF) is a practitioner-led initiative to further embed ESG integration into the UK and Chinese investment community and to promote the best practice that can be replicated in both markets. ELF seeks to support investors who are not yet able to commit to net zero, but who can still meaningfully minimise their ESG risks and proactively allocate capital to capture returns from the transition.
The Forum acts as a platform to support the dialogue between UK and Chinese investors. ELF will establish a mutually-recognized engagement framework, equip institutional investors with knowledge, tools and motivation to deal with ESG risks, and facilitate relevant participants (including regulators, investment institutions, research institutions and service providers) to conduct capacity building in order to mainstream ESG investing.
In this way, ELF forms the bridge between an increased understanding of risk, fostered by adoption of TCFD, and the capital needed to accelerate the transition in the real economy needed to mitigate the impacts of climate change.
ELF will deliver a sustained impact by supporting institutional investors to copy what works – the outputs will be open-source. ELF will work closely with regulators to mainstream action:
Platforms including the annual UK-China Green Finance Taskforce meeting and COP26 will be used to promote adoption. ELF draws on the successful model of the UK-China Environmental Disclosure Pilot, which has catalysed uptake of TCFD across the Chinese financial landscape.
Facilitated by joint leadership between City of London Corporation and Beijing Institute of Finance and Sustainability, ELF will allow investment practitioners in the UK and China to participate in targeted workstreams aimed at sharing best practice and increasing uptake of ESG practices.