In a new blog post, the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative outlined its recently released conceptual framework for embedding climate, nature and social risks within banks’ established risk management processes. The framework seeks to replace fragmented sustainability assessments with systematic integration at the counterparty and portfolio levels, allowing banks to improve risk pricing, capital allocation and client engagement without overhauling existing arrangements. The framework covers seven core elements: risk strategy, governance, risk identification and measurement, taxonomy and scope, risk appetite, management actions, and monitoring and reporting. Banks can tailor it to their size, complexity, maturity and regulatory environment. An operational playbook will follow as the second part of the initiative’s approach to sustainability risk integration.
2026-09-08United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative
United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative outlines framework for integrating sustainability risks into bank risk management
The United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative outlined a conceptual framework for embedding climate, nature and social risks into banks’ existing risk management processes. It covers seven core risk management elements and can be tailored to each bank’s circumstances, with an operational playbook to follow.