Methodology
We have developed a robust methodology to take stock of the extent to which banks, through their commitments, policies and practices, contribute to the plastics transition, based on international standards and agreements. This methodology assesses the three different phases each bank has to go through to take up its role in the plastics transition:
Acknowledgement and commitment
Banks need to explicitly acknowledge the severity of the plastics problem, its impact on climate change, nature, human health and communities, as well as their specific role and responsibility as financier of clients in the plastics lifecycle.
Banks should also commit to support solutions for the plastics problem, by committing to decrease financial flows towards companies that result in emissions and releases to the environment from plastics, and by increasing support for new technologies, products and practices that prevent or reduce plastics production and consumption.
Policy development
To make this commitment concrete, banks should then develop financing and investment policies which help prevent the negative impacts of plastics, covering the entire plastics lifecycle.
These policies should be based on relevant international standards and agreements, such as for example the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
Implementation
To meet their plastic commitments and ensure that their financing of companies (through loans, credits, issuance underwritings, and investments in shares and bonds) in the plastics cycle aligns with their policies, banks need to take decisive implementation steps.
They have to screen all their clients and investee companies in the plastics lifecycle. Based on this, they have to exclude certain companies and projects from further finance, and engage with other companies to support them in looking for alternative products, technologies and services. Furthermore, banks should report on how their policies are implemented. Banks should also participate in multi-stakeholder initiatives and calls for binding legislation.
21 criteria
Our methodology includes 21 criteria, covering in detail the three phases banks need to go through, as mentioned above.
For each criterium, we have defined a maximum number of points. How many points a banks get assigned for each criterium depends on the contents and robustness of the commitments, policies and implementation measures of the bank.
As we consider it of crucial importance that a bank fully acknowledges the severity of the plastics problem and its own role in it, and that it also makes a commitment to contribute to solutions, banks only receive scores for the “Policy development” and “Implementation” phases when it has first earned more than 50% of the points for the “Acknowledgement and commitment” phase.
it is crucial that a financial institution acknowledges the importance of the plastics problem and its role in it
50
%
of points go to Acknowledgement and commitment
This means that the scores for criteria 5 to 21 are only included in the total score when a bank scores at least 8 points (50%) for the first 4 criteria related to “Acknowledgement and Commitment”.
The total number of points assigned to a bank are added up and normalised on a scale of 0 to 100.
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75-100
-
50-74
-
25-49
-
0-24
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No data