Horizon Capital is the investment arm of SCCF SA (Structured Commodities and Corporate Finance active in Geneva since 2004). The company provides trade finance services to clients around the world. They specialise in short-term private debt strategies offering a range of investment solutions to institutional clients globally.
Horizon Capital wanted to develop a carbon footprint methodology and calculation tool for their portfolio that enables measuring the financed emissions of their portfolio in a comprehensive way. For financial institutions the majority of the emissions come from their investment or lending activities - financed emissions. Currently, there is no industry standard which provides calculation of financed emissions for the trade finance asset class. PCAF is the leading industry standard which provides financed emissions methodologies for selected asset classes, but does not include trade finance at the moment.
Together with Horizon Capital, South Pole developed a carbon footprint methodology and a footprint calculation tool for its portfolio. The methodology is aligned to PCAF and the GHG Protocol and takes into account detailed emission factors for commodities from South Pole's Agricultural Value Chain unit.
Further, the methodology was applied on the 2021 portfolio and the tool can also be used by Horizon Capital independently for future application.
