The new UN Global Compact’s CFO Taskforce gets underway with a two-year programme designed to put corporate finance at the centre of the Sustainable Finance agenda to advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Taskforce was launched, in Milan, with an event hosted by Borsa Italiana last December 17th.

There are four italian companies among the founding members of the Taskforce: Enel, Eni, Pirelli, Terna.

 “The global CFO community and their companies manage US$14 trillion in annual investments globally, including more than US$ 7 trillion in emerging markets,” said Lise Kingo, CEO and Executive Director of the UN Global Compact. “Through our CFO Taskforce, we want to activate the CFOs as stewards of trillions in investment to focus business strategies to close the SDG financing gap."

The CFO Taskforce aims to address the need to create new tools for CFOs to raise capital from impact-oriented investors, and deploy capital in a way that maximizes positive impact. The Taskforce will also aim to reduce the investment gap in key markets, including through $638 billion of annual foreign direct investments (FDI) in emerging markets.

The Taskforce will aim to leverage the nearly 10,000 companies participating in the UN Global Compact and include an annual survey to monitor the state of progress in the Global CFO community. The UN Global Compact’s Sustainable Finance Team led by Marie Morice will continue to recruit more CFOs in the coming months, including through a partnership with Accounting for Sustainability’s (A4S) CFO Network.

The CFO Taskforce will be co-chaired by Enel and PIMCO in close coordination with partners such as the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), UNEP-FI, A4S, the IMP and the Global Investors for Sustainable Development (GISD).