New resources for financial institutions pursuing climate leadership

Financial institutions have a transformative role in the global economy’s transition to net-zero. They can unleash transition finance and deliver real-world emissions reductions through their lending, investment, and underwriting decision-making and engagement, while mobilizing capital toward critical climate solutions.

To enable ambitious climate action across the sector, the SBTi has published two new resources: the Financial Institutions Getting Started Guide and the Explanatory Note for Insurance Underwriting. They are designed to help financial institutions understand, navigate, and implement the SBTi’s financial institutions frameworks, providing clarity on key concepts, expectations, and practical first steps.

The Financial Institutions Getting Started Guide

Financial institutions have the option to set near-term targets for their lending and investing activities using the SBTi Financial Institutions Near-Term Criteria, or to set near- and long-term targets for their lending, investing, insurance underwriting, and capital market activities using the SBTi Financial Institutions Net-Zero Standard. Acting as a structured entry point, the Financial Institutions Getting Started Guide helps organizations navigate the SBTi’s financial institutions frameworks and understand which target-setting resources are most relevant to their activities.

The Guide outlines which types of targets are applicable, and the key resources that support each step of the target-setting process. It also details how the SBTi’s financial institutions frameworks work together with other corporate and sector-specific criteria, ensuring that financial institutions targets are credible, holistic, and practical.

The Insurance Underwriting Explanatory Note

The Financial Institutions Net-Zero Standard introduced targets that include insurance underwriting activities—expanding the impact of science-based target setting for the sector. The Insurance Underwriting Explanatory Note provides guidance on practical implementation of the Standard for insurance underwriting portfolios, enabling organizations to align these activities with global climate goals.

Developed with support from members of the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative’s Forum for Insurance Transition and based on direct stakeholder engagement, the Explanatory Note serves as an informative document designed to complement the Financial Institutions Net-Zero Standard. It highlights ways to overcome commonly cited challenges through practical and illustrative guidance. 

The Explanatory Note is particularly applicable to stand-alone (re)insurers, composite (re)insurers, and diversified financial institutions with insurance business lines, and includes illustrative examples that can also be informative for banks, asset managers, asset owners, and private equity firms.

Together, the Financial Institutions Net-Zero Standard and the Explanatory Note support insurance companies to set targets that can serve as anchors for transition-planning, supporting the alignment of business strategies with climate science, while helping manage portfolio transition risks.

Climate change is no longer a distant threat—it is an immediate and material driver of economic instability. For financial institutions, science-based climate action is a strategic step to managing climate-related risk, strengthening portfolio resilience, and securing long-term financial stability, while aligning with global climate goals.

From the Financial Institutions Getting Started Guide to the Financial Institutions Net-Zero Standard itself, financial institutions can access all the resources they need to set credible and robust targets to align their financial activities with global climate goals, and unlock long-term competitive advantages in the transition to a net-zero economy. Get started today by registering at SBTi Services.