Morgan Stanley has become the first top tier US bank to commit to measuring greenhouse gas emissions fueled by its loans and investment products.
The bank is joining the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF) which is working to develop a global accounting standard that can be used by all financial institutions to measure and reduce their climate impact.
PCAF was initially set up by a coalition of Dutch banks in 2015 to develop and implement open-source methodologies to measure the GHG emissions of all asset classes within their loans and investments portfolios.
Launched globally in 2019, Morgan Stanley is the first major US-based global financial institution to join PCAF’s 66 formal members, which include financial institutions from around the world and represent more than $5.3 Trillion in assets.
Ivan Frishberg, director of impact policy at Amalgamated Bank and chair of the PCAF North America group believes Morgan Stanley's arrival may prove a trigger for other large US banks to join the movement.
“Dutch banks have played a critical role since the Paris Climate Summit in leading the methodological work for a carbon accounting system in the finance sector," he says. "Looking ahead, we know that in order to influence positive action on climate change in the private sector, there needs to be global adoption of a shared financed emissions accounting methodology across financial institutions, including by the global banks, many of which are based in the US. We are thrilled with Morgan Stanley’s decision and commitments, and look forward to working side by side in this effort.”