Major financial organisations have signed up to a climate change programme, pushing to steer more capital into environmental projects. The moves coincide with the UN gathering in New York this week.

As more actions filter out of the UN General Assembly meetings in New York, a group of financial institutions and other vested parties have signed up to a new initiative called the Coalition for Climate Resilient Investment (CCRI). German-based asset manager DWS announced its membership on Tuesday, along with more than 30 other institutions that want to channel more capital at a faster pace into climate resilient projects.

Specifically, the coalition wants to transform infrastructure investments by integrating climate risks into decision-making. The private-sector led initiative hopes it will speed up the transition to a climate resilient global economy with flows of capital to support it. Those committed to achieving this manage $5 trillion of assets and include governments and multilateral organisations, it was unveiled at the Climate Action Summit in New York this week.

DWS CEO, Asoka Wöhrmann, said it was “an honour” to join the coalition. "DWS is committed to using our full expertise to support the coalition's goal of getting capital into climate resilient infrastructure. Making current and future infrastructure assets climate resilient is a critical part of our coherent ESG investment strategy,” he said.

Reports from the summit suggest that initiatives for taking firmer climate action coming from the financial sector have been more encouraging than those from governments of leading economies.

A statement by Andrew Steer, president and CEO of the World Resources Institute, said: “While countries were expected to come to the summit to announce that they would enhance their climate ambition, most of the major economies fell woefully short.”

The UK recently announced its own climate plan to become a carbon-neutral economy by 2050, the first European economy to make such a mandate. Speaking at the General Assembly on Monday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the UK contribution to tackling climate change through overseas development funding would be doubled to £11.6 billion over the next five years, adding that it was the “most significant” announcement he would make at the UN. This has since been overshadowed by the UK Supreme Court's ruling yesterday that Johnson's decision to suspend parliament was "unlawful", for which he was notably grilled before bidding a hasty return to the UK.