Banks in MENA should do more on climate risk data, new report

Banks in MENA should do more on climate risk data, new report

- The London Institute of Banking & Finance (LIBF) suggests banks in MENA should move quickly to go beyond reporting on ESG and get hard data on climate risk – both data on their own exposure and on that of their clients

Abu Dhabi, UAE: Banks in the MENA region would benefit from keeping pace with global best practices on climate risk reporting if they want to avoid losing ground to international counterparts.

According to a new LIBF report, the scale and complexity of climate change requires MENA banks to get ready now to report on climate risk – ahead of local regulatory mandates or economic transitions.

In October 2022, the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosure (TCFD) showed that only around 25% of all firms in the Middle East report on their exposure to climate change. That was the lowest score globally, the next lowest being Latin America at 28% of all firms. Europe was the leader with 60%.

“Now it’s about hard numbers on climate exposure, about auditable climate reporting and about a defensible climate strategy,” said Kareem Refaay, LIBF’s Managing Director, MENA and GCC.

This goes much further than the ESG reports that institutions in the region already issue. These can provide