*by Simon Zadek, picture courtesy of UN Environment
In Davos on the 20 January, 2017 – the ‘Green Digital Finance Alliance’, a ground-breaking initiative to harness digital technologies in catalyzing financing that addresses global environmental challenges, was launched at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland by its two founders, Ant Financial Services Group (Ant Financial), China’s leading online and mobile financial services provider, and UN Environment. The Alliance as a global partnership will include innovative digital finance businesses and active stakeholders in accelerating such innovations and scaling their international deployment.
For more information, please have a look at the Alliance’s website: www.greendigitalfinance.org, or sign up for more information please go to: https://www.greendigitalfinance.org/connect
Financing sustainable development is one of the greatest challenge of our times.
To meet this challenge will require ambition, innovation, and commitment, underpinned by effective collaboration. Digital finance can drive environmental risks, opportunities, incentives and choices into the decision-making across the financing value chain. The Green Digital Finance Alliance is committed to driving forward such changes through market innovation, collaborative action and increased public’s awareness of sustainable development and green lifestyle choices.
“The Green Digital Finance Alliance is a unique partnership ensuring that we can align tomorrow’s fintech powered global financial system with sustainable development. UN Environment is honoured to partner with Ant Financial in making green finance an integral part of the daily life of every individual and business”, said Erik Solheim, Executive Director of UN Environment.
One such innovation is Ant Financials’ app which provides its users with a carbon account alongside their credit and saving accounts. Ant’s 450 million users in China are now able to benchmark their carbon footprint, generated through algorithms of their financial transaction history, and to earn ‘green energy’ credits for reducing their footprint. Ant Financial has integrated this into a social media experience as well as committing to a complementary, tree-planting carbon offset program. As of today, 72 million users are participating in the app. The number of people that signed up yesterday alone was nearly the equivalent of the population of Switzerland. Every day tens of millions of users go to their Ant Forest to grow their virtual trees while reducing carbon emissions.
“Ant Financial is a strong believer in green finance. Several of our products and services have been contributing to sustainable development. Leveraging mobile Internet, cloud computing and big data, we can encourage our hundreds of millions of users to participate in a green lifestyle,” said Eric Jing, Chief Executive Officer of Ant Financial.
See the op-ed by UN Environment chief, Erik Solheim and ANT’s CEO, Eric Jing: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2017-01/20/content_28005981.htm, and Thomson Reuters interview: http://sustainability.thomsonreuters.com/2017/01/17/executive-perspective-an-unusual-collaboration-launches-into-the-world-of-finance/.
Further Quotes supporting the launch of the Green Digital Finance Alliance:
“Innovations in financial technologies (fintech) offer the greatest hope for aligning the world’s financial systems with the urgent twin objectives of sustainable development and deepening financial inclusion. Further progress requires the close cooperation of all–innovators, regulators, financial institutions.” (Dr. Patrick Njoroge, Governor, Central Bank of Kenya)
“Access to affordable, clean energy can transform the livelihoods of millions of people around the world. At M-KOPA we’re harnessing the latest mobile and machine-to-machine technology to connect low-income homes to solar power, as well as productive assets and services. The Green Digital Finance Alliance provides a framework for parallel industries to work together to unlock the next wave of fintech innovation to lift millions out of poverty and drive sustainable development.” (Nick Hughes, Chief Product Officer and Co-Founder, M-KOPA)
“Implementing the SDGs will not be possible without adequate financing. We have to be creative in mobilizing finance from every possible source and ambitious in exploring how to work together in aligning our global financial system with sustainable development. I welcome the launch of the Green Digital Finance Alliance as it addresses digital technologies to catalyse finance for the Sustainable Development Goals.” (Ambassador Peter Thomson, President of the United Nations General Assembly)
“The Green Digital Finance Alliance is a unique partnership ensuring that we can align tomorrow’s fintech-powered global financial system with sustainable development.” (Erik Solheim, Under-Secretary General of the United Nations, Head, UN Environment)