The 7^th meeting of the Taskforce kicked-off with a keynote from the former Assistant Secretary General of the UN and Secretary General of the Alliance for a Sustainable Planet Satya Tripathi, who emphasised the alignment between Islamic finance principles and addressing climate change. He called on stakeholders to improve on risk sharing as a means of collaboration for climate change and the need to focus more on adaptation.

LSEG’s Shrey Kohli, Chair of the High-Level Working Group on Green and Sustainable Sukuk (HLWG), gave updates on the HLWG’s work including the approval of the work plan. He noted the developments in the sukuk market including Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank raising $750 million perpetual sukuk and First Abu Dhabi Bank issuing the UAE’s first-ever dirham-denominated green sukuk. Findings from the survey Attitudes of banking customers towards the UN SDGs Global Survey 2023 were presented and Nadeem Haq gave an update on UKIFC’s “Project Tayyib”, an innovative Islamic ESG kitemark being launched at COP28.

Plans for COP28 were highlighted including the Unlocking Islamic Finance summit on 5th December, learn more here. As the Taskforce is coming to a conclusion, plans for a closing report summarizing the Taskforce’s outputs to be issued at COP28 were shared.

The 6^th meeting of the Taskforce bought together 30 global stakeholders and started with the Chair highlighting that, over the last 2 years, the Taskforce had delivered 35+ meetings and had been showcased at COP26, COP27, UN General Assembly and at the G20. Taskforce-led events, reports, capacity building sessions and guidance notes have positively raised awareness and knowledge and informed policy.

A guest presentation from CIBAFI’s Dr Bilal provided an overview of their recent Sustainability Guide for Islamic Financial Institutions. Updates were provided by each working group as follows: Jinan Al Taitoon, from Refinitiv (an LSEG company), presented the key findings from the recently launched ‘Green and Sustainable Sukuk Report 2022’; Syed Fahim Ahmed shared key findings from the ‘SDGs and Sustainability Report – Pakistan Banking Sector Perspective’; and Chris Tait shared initial insights from the global retail banking IF & SDGs survey.

Andy Homer, concluded by sharing insight into Gatehouse Bank’s successful UN Principles for Responsible Banking journey. It was agreed that the Taskforce would continue until COP28, with the UKIFC leading the Unlocking Finance workstream of the Path to COP28 programme.

Hosted by London Stock Exchange Group the Taskforce meeting was conducted as a hybrid session. A welcome keynote was provided by Claire Dorrian, Head of Sustainable Finance Capital Markets, LSEG who highlighted the market trends and the various development initiatives LSEG are involved with.

Updates were provided by each of the working groups. GM Abbasi, Director Islamic Banking State bank of Pakistan noted the significant market share Islamic banking now has in Pakistan and noted the recent report launch. Shrey Kohli, Head of DCM LSEG, who earlier convened a meeting of Green and Sustainable Sukuk working group provided an update of activities. Refinitiv shared plans for their forthcoming report launch and Dr Zamir Iqbal, CFO IsDB provided a market update.

Fadi Hariri, UKIFC, shared details on the finalise global survey. Other updates were provided by Andy Homer (Gatehouse Bank), Lord Sheikh, Amer Bukvic (IsDB) and HMT amongst others. The Taskforce’s programme of activities for the G20 side events, Ethical Finance and COP27 were also discussed.

At the Taskforce meeting in November 2021, held to coincide with the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, participants gathered in-person at Loch Lomond and virtually to discuss Islamic finance and the SDGs, and how faith-based finance can support climate action. Participants included Special Adviser to the UN Secretary General, Dr Ahmed Al-Meraikhi, Executive Secretary of UN-ESCWA, Dr Rola Dashti and Economic Secretary to the Treasury John Glen MP.

We heard updates on the UK Government’s commitment to the Islamic finance industry, the London Stock Exchange Group’s plans for green sukuk, the issuance of sovereign and retail green sukuk in Indonesia, as well as progress reports from the Education & Awareness and Pakistan Working Groups of the Taskforce, as well as comments from institutions including Wahed Invest, Gatehouse Bank and more.

At the Taskforce meeting in July 2021, participants from around the world gathered virtually to discuss Islamic finance and the SDGs. Dr Hayat Sindi, Chief Scientific Adviser to the President of IsDB emphasized the challenges in achieving the SDGs in the next nine years in Islamic countries and beyond. The Goals are at the heart of the IsDB’s strategy, which seeks to leverage the power of science and technology. Dr Sindi gave a number of examples of IsDB’s work in this area.

Following this, we heard updates on the Pakistan Working Group from GM Abbasi, Director of the Islamic Banking Division at the State Bank of Pakistan, on the Disclosure and Reporting Working Group from Andy Homer, Director of Communications at Gatehouse Bank and Natalie Jackson, Executive Manager at the Global Ethical Finance Initiative and lastly on the Education and Awareness Working from Omar Shaikh, Board Member at UKIFC. After the working group updates, the Taskforce saw contributions from representatives of UKIFC, The Securities Commission Malaysia, CIBAFI, BPMB, CIMB and the UK Government.

Following on from the success of the inaugural Islamic Finance and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Taskforce meeting in July 2020, over 50 global Islamic Finance leaders including HE Dr. Reza Baqir (Governor, State Bank of Pakistan) and Dr. Hayat Sindi (Islamic Development Bank) who provided a welcome address on behalf of the IsDB President. At the meeting, the Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan highlighted the regulatory framework the country has established for green finance and announced the set-up of a country level working group as part of the Taskforce, bringing together leading banks in Pakistan to encourage engagement with the SDGs. Updates from the recently established working groups on Disclosure and Reporting and Education and Awareness were presented by Andy Homer (Gatehouse Bank) and Omar Shaikh (UKIFC) respectively.

The inaugural Islamic Finance and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Taskforce meeting took place virtually, in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, bringing together over 40 global Islamic finance leaders. The pioneering meeting, convened by the Islamic Finance Council UK (UKIFC) in partnership with the UK Government, explored the role Islamic finance can play in addressing the $2.5 trillion SDGs funding gap as part of the post-Covid-19 economic recovery.