Careen Abb

Careen leads the Banking work programme of the UNEP Finance Initiative, a unique partnership between the global finance community and the United Nations established in 1992 to advance the active participation of the finance sector in the realization of global sustainability objectives.

Since 2015, Careen's core focus is to develop the Positive Impact Initiative, which aims to catalyse the finance sector’s ability to finance sustainable development – as per the Sustainable Development Goals established in 2015. At the heart of the Initiative lies the belief that the progress achieved to-date in environmental and social risk management can be built on to deliver a more holistic appraisal of the positive and negative impacts of financial institutions’ financing and investments, as a key step to switch on mainstream finance’s capacity to help drive the transition to a new, more sustainable economy.

This focus builds on close to 10 years at UNEP FI, during which Careen helped develop and expand the sustainable finance agenda in emerging markets, by supporting the development of strong in-country sustainable finance networks and the creation of a well-established training programme on environmental & social risk management. A strong believer in the need for simple communication tools for banking practitioners, Careen is also co-author of UNEP FI’s Guide to Banking & Sustainability.

She holds a Master in International Relations from the University of Kent in Canterbury, following an initial career as a linguist, holding a Masters from the University of Geneva.

After four years in Mexico City and three in Paris, France, Careen is currently based in Geneva, Switzerland.