B2B digital assets infrastructure Zumo has signed the Abu Dhabi Sustainable Finance Declaration, a voluntary membership-based initiative.
Launched in 2019, the initiative is aimed at increasing the depth and quality of green financial products in the Emirate and bolstering the sustainable finance industry to support the Emirate and the wider UAE in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
By signing the declaration, Zumo will collaborate with other participants to help create a framework for fostering and integrating green and sustainable investments and provide expertise and insights.
Other signatories of the Abu Dhabi Sustainable Finance Declaration include the Central Bank of the UAE, the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, Deloitte and a number of others including First Abu Dhabi Bank, BNP Paribas, Citibank, HSBC, ING Bank, Macquarie and UniCredit.
Nick Jones, Founder and CEO of Zumo, commented: “Sustainability now sits high on the world’s corporate agenda, and we’ve seen the regulator in Europe, ESMA, introduce ESG disclosures for crypto-asset providers and token issuers through its MiCA framework.
“As we expand into the UAE, we look forward to working with industry stakeholders to share our knowledge and help to drive a sustainable digital assets sector in the Middle East.”
According to ING research, global sustainable finance issuance reached $800 billion in the first half of the year, almost matching the figure in the first half of last year. Meanwhile, looking at the regional landscape, at COP28, the UAE’s banking sector set the goal of mobilising AED1 trillion in sustainable financing by 2030.
Indeed, there’s a big climate finance gap, and banks have a significant role to play in filling it.
However, while there has been an uptick in commitments, research published earlier this year found that since the Paris Agreement, the world’s 60 largest private banks financed fossil fuels with USD $6.9 trillion. Alongside funding the climate crisis, the World Resources Institute has also revealed that banks are off-track to meet net-zero targets, with many of their pledges “less ambitious than they seem at face value” and their green financing far from enough.