Collaboration between the two influential think tanks will see Carbon Tracker’s industry-leading utilities and oil and gas insights accessible to more markets through 2DII’s PACTA tool.

Sustainable finance think tanks Carbon Tracker and 2° Investing Initiative (2DII) have agreed to work together to develop a new climate scenario analysis solution for companies and financial institutions.

The research collaboration will combine Carbon Tracker’s power and fossil fuel industry assessment expertise with 2DII’s Paris Agreement Capital Transition Assessment (PACTA) tool, a free-to-use software platform that allows users to analyse specific companies and measure the alignment of financial portfolios with climate goals.

The organisations said they would now pool their research capabilities to develop a single analytical solution with multiple methodologies that would allow users to customise company analysis based on their needs. The combined approach would make Carbon Tracker’s industry-leading methodology for the upstream oil and gas and utilities sectors available on the PACTA tool, they said.

The open source software, which is backed by the UN’s Principles for Responsible Investment, is underpinned by a vast climate-related financial database that covers hundreds of thousands of securities, companies, and energy-related physical assets.

Stan Dupré, chief executive of 2DII, said the collaboration would provide financial institutions with the “best tools available to develop impact-oriented strategies that contribute to real world greenhouse gas emissions reductions”.

“PACTA is a critical part of 2DII’s efforts to provide the financial sector with the data, tools and knowledge they need to help align financial flows with the Paris Agreement,” he added. “By combining forces with Carbon Tracker, we are reducing the transaction cost of accessing cutting-edge research by bringing together leading research methodologies in one place and harmonising our approaches.”

PACTA has been applied by more than 1,200 organisations with more than $61tr of assets under management, as well as supervisors and central banks such as the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority and California Department of Insurance.

Mark Campanale, founder and executive chair of Carbon Tracker, toasted the new partnership, which he said could play a role in pushing more companies to align themselves with global climate goals. “Collaborating with 2DII on the use of PACTA will make our insights more accessible to the markets,” he said. “This isn’t just about providing analysts with better data. At its core is our goal of ensuring that fossil fuel producers align their business plans with the objectives of the Paris climate agreement of ‘well below 2 degrees’ and that investors can, with this data, play a key role in moving companies in this direction.”

The two think tanks confirmed they would set up a coordination committee for the collaboration that will count research and management staff.

Original Source: businessgreen.com