PCAF Marks Significant Milestone with 200th Signatory Financial Institution

The Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF) has welcomed its 200th signatory financial institution, Japan Post Bank Co., Ltd., doubling its number of signatories globally and nearly tripling total signatory financial assets to $60 trillion since February 2021.

Guidehouse, which serves as PCAF’s secretariat, has worked closely with financial institutions all over the world to develop and facilitate the adoption of the first-of-its-kind Global GHG Accounting and Reporting Standard for the Financial Industry. The standard enables financial institutions to consistently measure and disclose the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of their loans and investments.

“We launched PCAF globally in September 2019 with about 50 financial institutions and $5 trillion in assets, and are thrilled to announce that just over 2 years later, we have reached 200 financial institutions with 60 trillion USD in assets.” says Giel Linthorst, director at Guidehouse and executive director of the PCAF secretariat. “This amazing growth clearly shows the importance of measuring and disclosing GHG emissions of financial portfolios and the value of collaboration globally and locally.”

PCAF’s growth over the past year has been in part due to the widespread acceptance of the Standard by financial institutions in Asia-Pacific, with the number of PCAF signatories in region growing nearly five-fold to 34 financial institutions and representing $15 trillion in total financial assets since January 2021.

As global adoption of the Standard gains attention, PCAF is on track to achieve its goal of 250 signatories well before the end of 2022. A second edition of the PCAF Standard is planned to launch in April 2022 and is expected to include GHG accounting methodologies for three new asset classes: sovereign bonds, green bonds, and emission removals.