A new data platform, called Forest IQ, has launched to provide financial institutions with data on how more than 2000 major companies are addressing their links to deforestation.
The platform has been created by an alliance of not-for-profits, Global Canopy, the Stockholm Environment Institute and ZSL as a way to help investors eliminate deforestation from their portfolios.
Financial institutions can use it to screen portfolios, engage with the most relevant companies, manage deforestation risks and achieve their climate and nature targets.
Forest IQ is launching amidst growing policy and compliance pressure on financial institutions to eliminate deforestation from their portfolios in order to achieve their climate and nature goals.
The UN’s High-Level Expert Group on the Net-Zero Emissions Commitments of Non-State Entities has set a 2025 target for deforestation-free finance.
Niki Mardas, executive director, Global Canopy, says: "Forest IQ will make it easier than ever for financial institutions to play their vital part in a rapid marketwide transition away from deforestation.
"It provides a simple and practical high-level company benchmark on deforestation while retaining all the power and depth of market-leading datasets that provide over 2,400 indicators on deforestation, conversion and human rights abuses."