Virtual— Civil society organization Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) hosted a two-day workshop from March 24-25 for the Equator Principles Limited. Annually, since 2021, WECAN has co-organized and facilitated high-level workshops for Equator Principles Financial Institutions (EPFIs) in an ongoing series of engagement sessions.

The EP Limited is a consortium of over 120 of the largest banks in more than 30 countries that have adopted the Equator Principles (EP), a risk management framework intended for “financial institutions to identify, assess and manage environmental and social risks when financing Projects.” The workshops invite financial institutions to align their goals and management practices with the climate targets in the Paris Climate Accord and call for implementing Indigenous and human rights utilizing international standards.

In the first of two workshop sessions, policy researchers and organizers discussed the 1.5 degree guardrail as outlined by scientists, and examined Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) in depth from a scientific and financial risk perspective. In the second session, affected community leaders shared on-the-ground impacts of financing projects in their communities and territories, and how financial institutions can improve monitoring, consultation, due diligence, and grievance mechanisms.

The workshops offered critical insights regarding the impacts of EPFI-financed projects and emerging projects with human rights risks while examining the climate and health impacts on communities from extractive industries, particularly as it concerns their financing of fossil fuel expansion, specifically LNG production. The workshops provided financial institutions an opportunity to learn about different approaches to the Just Transition, examine opportunities and challenges to climate solutions and climate finance, and improve engagements with impacted communities as part of due diligence processes.