Stakeholders expect Finnfund to invest in climate action

Research company Innolink conducted a survey for approximately one hundred Finnfund stakeholders. The interview questions dealt with Finnfund’s visibility and image, its mission and success with it, as well as the quality of cooperation with stakeholders. The respondents included representatives of Finnfund’s investment projects, co-investors, civil society organisations, political influencers and academia.

“This information is very valuable to Finnfund: now we know what we have succeeded in and what more is expected of us. The respondents view Finnfund as a reliable partner, which is good base for meeting our ambitious goals”, says Pasi Rajala, Communications Director of Finnfund.

”I’m somewhat surprised by how well Finnfund’s mission shows in our work. 81% of the respondents stated that our mission is reflected quite well or very well. We are committed to building a sustainable world by investing in responsible and profitable businesses in developing countries – and the survey shows that this is visible to our stakeholders as well.”

The answers are clear in that all respondent groups expect Finnfund to work on climate change mitigation and adaptation. At the same time, climate change is seen as the area of impact that already features strongly in Finnfund’s work.

During 2018 Finnfund invested 71.9 million euros in companies or funds that mitigate climate change or contribute to adaptation. Finnfund also started to calculate the climate effects of its total investment portfolio.

In the future, the respondents expect Finnfund to be even more transparent and open especially regarding measuring and reporting the development impact.

“This was one of the central takeaways from the survey. Development impact assessment and monitoring throughout the investment life cycle is in the core of our work, but we need to to communicate it better”, says Rajala.

Finnfund publishes annual reports on development results. The reports are available here.