Finance Case Studies
Barclays is a UK-based financial services group engaged in commercial
and investment banking and investment management activities worldwide.
Barclays provides finance to major projects such as construction
and mining and retail. Potential impacts of these financed activities
on biodiversity include habitat loss and pollution.
Barclays uses environmental credit risk assessment policies and
procedures to factor environmental issues, including biodiversity,
into loan risk profiles, upon which structuring and pricing decisions
are based. The
Equator Principles, of which Barclays are signatories, commit
banks to ensuring that borrowers have adequately addressed the protection
of biodiversity, including endangered species and sensitive ecosystems.
The adopting bank recognises that the reputation of the bank and
the borrower “are inextricably linked.
The risk for companies not managing biodiversity exposure adequately
is that capital will be harder to access or increase in cost. Companies
in certain sectors will need to demonstrate that they are operating
to acceptable biodiversity standards in order to borrow from “Equator”
banks.
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