Keeping the money coming for Sustainable Development Goals

Billions needed

What's missing is money. Each year, there's a structural shortfall of many thousands of billions of euros which are required to realise the SDGs. On 7 December 2016, a collective of twenty-one Dutch financial institutions including ABN AMRO will present their agenda for further cooperation and joint actions to Lilianne Ploumen, Dutch Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation.​

The Dutch SDG investment agenda is committed to making more money available for contribution to the SDGs. This agenda will play a prominent role in guiding the Dutch financial sector's efforts, in cooperation with the Dutch government, the supervisory authorities and clients of financial institutions.

Examples

These billions of euros are needed to realise concrete changes, for example:

• SDG #2 is about completely eradicating hunger. In 2014, the number of malnourished children was 154,000,000 worldwide. The goal for 2030 is to ensure no children have insufficient food. To realise this goal, local production as well as improved distribution and logistics are required.

• SDG #7 concerns stabilising our climate. Our global economy emitted 34.650.000 kilotons of CO2 in 2015, which was a steep increase compared to 2000. The sustainable development goal for 2030 is to achieve a downward trend of CO2 emissions by humans, as releasing more CO2 will result in a harmful rise in global temperature.

Deep dive

ABN AMRO and Triodos Investment Services have written an  SDGI deep dive report​ about impact investing for retail investors. This deep dive was the result of close cooperation between ABN AMRO and Triodos with input from ING Bank, FMO, Rabobank, NIBC - NIBC Retail, ASN Bank, Van Lanschot, Theodoor Gilissen, ASSR, NN Group, and Robeco SAM. The deep dive includes tailored advice to the sector, government and supervisory authorities to encourage long-term SDG-related investments by retail investors.

What ABN AMRO does to increase impact through clients

• ABN AMRO Private Banking maintains two sustainable portfolio management mandates that invest in impact funds and other products with a positive impact. These are the Sustainable Funds Mandate and the Sustainable Investments Mandate. For more information, see abnamro.nl/nl/privatebanking/uw-vermogen/duurzaam-inzetten (in Dutch only). 

• ABN AMRO offers the FMO Privium Impact Fund: an investment fund that was developed in cooperation with the Dutch development bank FMO. The fund's money is used to encourage employment growth, production of clean energy and access to energy. For more information, see fmopriviumimpactfund.nl (in Dutch only).

• ABN AMRO offers philanthropy advice to its private banking clients. For more information, see abnamro.nl/nl/privatebanking/uw-vermogen/filantropie-advies (in Dutch only).

• ABN AMRO manages the peer-to-peer platform Informal Investment Online where the bank brings its private banking clients in touch with SME entrepreneurs, including the rapidly growing social entrepreneurs segment. For more information, see abnamro.nl/nl/privatebanking/ondernemers/investeren-onderneming (in Dutch only).

• ABN AMRO's Social Impact Fund (SIF) is a testing ground for investments with social impact, starting off with a 10 million euro investment by the bank itself. ABN AMRO will be applying its experience with SIF towards further shaping and fine-tuning its offering for retail clients. For more information, see abnamro.com/nl/duurzaam-bankieren/financieren-en-beleggen/social-impact-fonds.

Relevant links

• Circular economy contributes to UN goals

• 2015: all on board for a better world