"Dear friends of the NAB,

      Despite the spring vibes slowly arising, it is sometimes difficult to not give way to the grim current context. While the war in Ukraine is raging and the behaviour of Russia increasingly defying reason, the IPCC reports have barely received any attention from the media. I cannot help but think about a recent quote from Greenpeace Australia CEO during an Impact Investing event “You will look back on these last years of flood and bushfire, and remember them as the ‘good old days’…! The fact that last weekend over 1,000 scientists had to resort to chaining themselves in protest to get the world’s attention around the dramatic climate and biodiversity crisis coming upon us and our children should be alarming enough for decision-makers: governments, boards of financial institutions, corporates. As much as ESG strategies are better than nothing, they are just not enough to drive real change and contribute to solutions: the world urgently needs impact investing.

      The NAB, in partnership with KPMG, recently released our State of the Dutch impact investing ecosystem report. The title “Are we punching below our weight?” says enough about our conviction that the Netherlands is uniquely placed to drive change if, and only if, all its stakeholders rise up to the challenge of driving real impact. For the stakeholders still hesitating about their commitment to impact investing, I want to call upon them to join the NAB community and learn from all the front-runners that are our members! World leaders have shown that they are capable of wonders of cooperation during the urgency of the pandemic crisis. Let’s now get going with the ecological crisis. Allow me to share another quote, from Acumen-founder Jacqueline Novogratz:

“Just start – and let the work teach you.”

- Laure Wessemius-Chibrac, Managing Director

CAPITAL REQUIREMENTS

On the 4th of April 2022 the kick-off meeting for the capital requirements working group took place. We are happy to announce that Actiam, a.s.r., FMO, and the NAB are joining forces for this project. The working group focuses on questioning policy-makers assumptions under Solvency II and the successor of the VEV regarding risk assessment of private equity and private debt in emerging markets by providing data-driven research. With the help of other European NABs and the GSG, we are planning to approach regulators with our results to influence the capital charges required for institutional investors in the impact investing sector.

IPCC REPORT 2022

The latest instalment of the Sixth Assessment Report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was released to the public on the 4th of April 2022. The instalment includes two reports: Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation, Vulnerability and Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. The former report describes in detail to what extent and in what ways the anthropogenic climate change is negatively affecting billions of lives every day, bringing harm by disrupting the natural cycle, and more. The latter report is particularly interesting as it comes up with possible solutions. It serves as evidence-based advice and summary for policymakers, covers the evidence for rising climate action and makes salient the need for immediate drastic emission reduction in order to restrict global warming to 1.5°C.

You can find the reports here.

INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCE TO HARMONIZE IMPACT INVESTMENT SIZING IN EUROPE

EVPA and the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment (GSG), in collaboration with several NABs as well as academic partners have joined forces to shed light on the European impact investing field. With the aggregated data collected through the survey, they aim to create more clarity around the field and its practices and quantify its transformative impact on society and the planet. Impact investors can participate in the survey via the link below. More information about the survey can be found here. The survey itself can be found here.

The Dutch NAB actively participated in the harmonisation efforts to create a single survey questionnaire and will contribute the aggregated Dutch data recently collected for its own market sizing.

In the years to come, we hope to also facilitate the answering process of all the survey respondents with a unique questionnaire to fill in.

INTERESTING PUBLICATIONS

Make My Money Matter

#DeliverTheTruth about pension funds in the UK

Financial institutions using your money to support environmentally-harmful businesses and industries is a major concern of the impact industry. Make My Money Matter addresses the issue of UK pension funds financing deforestation with this short, but impactful film, where they "deliver the truth to your door".

Take a look! 

Esade’s study places IMM governance at the heart of impact funds’ structure

A study conducted by Esade's Center for Social Impact gives insight into the lack of transparency and best practices in impact management and measurement (IMM) governance, helping impact funds to adopt structures that fit their needs. Great to see that one of NAB founding members, Rubio Impact Ventures, is cited as best practice!

To find out more information about the study, follow this link.

VBDO publishes a great podcast about sustainability: The purpose of finance and investment. Clear, concise and perfectly structured! Don't miss it.

In this 5-episode podcast series, 10 finance and sustainability experts answer a vast variety of questions about financial and sustainable decision-making with the aim to help you explore - or even change your mind - about these frameworks. The VDBO experts dive into the existing systems and discuss how prepared they are for the modern sustainability challenges.

You can find and listen to the first 3 released episodes on Spotify by clicking here.

2022 EVENTS AND PROGRAM

GSG Impact Summit Series PART 1: 

Theme: Financing a Better World Through 

Impact Transparency

Date: 15th of June

Online event

NAB Spring Members’ Meeting

Theme: 2022 Action Agenda: a deep-dive into pipeline development

Date: 16th of June (afternoon)

Location: Scheveningen, The Hague

NAB members-only 

An introduction exchange with CGAP new CEO

Theme: Meeting Sophie Sirtaine 

Date: 7th of July (16:00-18:30)

GSG Impact Summit Series PART 2: 

Theme: Boosting Capital Allocation in Emerging Markets

Date: 22nd of September

Online event

GIIN Investor Forum and ImpactFest The Hague 

Date: 12th/13th of October

Location: The Hague

NAB Fall Members’ Meeting

Theme: 2023 Action Agenda

Date: 13th of October

NAB members-only

GSG Impact Summit Series PART 3: 

Theme: Townhall Hosted by Sir Ronald Cohen, GSG Chair

Date: 22nd of November

Online event

Want to become a member? For inquiries e-mail us at contact@nabimpactinvesting.nl. 

We are grateful for the support of our founding partners!