PACTA climate test 2024

The Climate and Innovation Act comes into effect on 1 January 2025. This stipulates that financial flows should be made climate-compatible, i.e. investments and financing are to adhere to the target of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The law also requires the financial sector to make an effective contribution to achieving climate goals. This will initially be done on a voluntary basis. The impact of voluntary climate measures is assessed periodically by the federal government. The PACTA climate test helps the financial sector to work towards the binding net-zero target.

In 2024 the FOEN and the State Secretariat for International Finance SIF will run the comprehensive PACTA climate test for the fourth time. The test analyses the climate compatibility of financial portfolios. PACTA stands for Paris Agreement Capital Transition Assessment.

The pension fund association ASIP, the Swiss Insurance Association SVV, the Bankers' Association SBA, the Asset Management Association Switzerland AMAS, Swiss Sustainable Finance SSF, the Association for Responsible Investments SVVK-ASIR and the Conference for Investment Foundations KGAST support the internationally coordinated climate compatibility tests. This is the fourth time that Switzerland has conducted the PACTA test, making it a leading country in this field.

Participation in the 2024 climate test

All Swiss banks, asset managers, pension funds and insurers are invited to have their portfolios tested, on a voluntary and anonymous basis. Each financial institute receives an automatically generated individual test report for each portfolio and for the whole institute. This contains a comparison with other PACTA participants and also provides indicators for the Swiss Climate Scores. Financial institutes can choose whether or not to publish their individual results.

Information about participating in the 2024 PACTA test can be found in the invitation here:

Einladung zur Teilnahme am PACTA Klimatest 2024 des BAFU und des SIF (PDF, 135 kB, 01.02.2024)(available in German or French)

Registration in 2024:

Financial institutes can register for the climate test on the platform of the independent non-profit organization RMI from 1 March to 17 May 2024.

RMI: Transitionmonitor

More information and templates:

Briefing note: An introduction to the content and technical aspects and FAQs can be found in:

Briefing note by RMI and FPRE on the PACTA Climate Test Switzerland 2024 (PDF, 3 MB, 05.02.2024)(available in Englisch, German or French)

Templates: Templates on the following can be found at the end of this webpage under Further Information > Documentation: Non-disclosure agreements; data regarding real estate/mortgages and shares/corporate bonds; qualitative survey (PDF).

Webinars: The FOEN is also organising webinars on the 2024 PACTA climate test.

05.03.2024, 15-17h: Webinar PACTA Klimatest 2024 in Deutsch (English for the PACTA equity/corporate bond module)
07.03.2024, 15-17h: Webinaire PACTA test climatique 2024 avec des parties en français et en anglais

For recordings of the webinars, please contact pactacop@rmi.org.

Key aspects of the 2024 PACTA climate test

The FOEN will publish the report on 2024 test participation in the various financial sectors (banks, asset managers, insurers and pension funds) in the autumn of 2024. The results will be published in aggregate and anonymised form.

Real estate and mortgages are a key focus of the 2024 test round, as is the extent to which current and proposed (self-)regulation and recommendations made by the federal government and industry associations have already been implemented.

In 2022, 133 financial institutes voluntarily took part in the PACTA climate test. More than two thirds of these also took part in the qualitative survey on climate-relevant measures. Financial institutes of various sizes from all sectors participated. The results were meaningful and comparable with the test results from 2017 and 2020 across the financial sector as a whole.

The PACTA method

The tests are carried out using the PACTA method (Paris Agreement Capital Transition Assessment). This enables a standardised analysis for global equity, corporate bonds and credit portfolios. The underlying database covers around 250,000 industrial assets worldwide. On the following website you will find more information on the PACTA model, which is applied by the independent, international and non-profit organisation Rocky Mountain Institute RMI. Used by numerous financial institutions and countries, it is available open source on the market:

The PACTA model

Switzerland additionally offers a test for use by financial institutions that compares Swiss real estate and mortgage portfolios with the climate target for the domestic building stock. The PACTA real estate model, which was created on behalf of the FOEN and further developed for the 2024 climate test, will also be available without a licence on request following publication of the 2024 results. Analysis of all these climate-relevant sectors allows 70 to 90 per cent of the emissions indirectly linked with the capital markets to be captured.