Climate pledges are now widespread among financial institutions (FIs), which face pressure from investors, regulators, and markets to back these up with credible action. FIs are increasingly expected to explicitly link climate targets to capital allocation, risk management, governance, and real-economy outcomes. 

Transition plans have become a key means for FIs to lay out how they will deliver on their climate commitments. At the same time, the growing number of transition-related guidance creates complexities in determining which standards to align with.  

A comparative framework of transition planning frameworks 

With more than 50 frameworks now shaping expectations for FIs’ transition plans globally, the landscape has matured in both ambition and technical specificity. By analyzing 13 leading frameworks, this report helps FIs identify emerging best practices, understand where expectations are converging, and navigate an increasingly complex transition planning landscape. It maps these frameworks against CPI’s Net Zero Finance Tracker (NZFT) architecture, assesses their alignment with the NZFT’s indicators and standard actions, highlights areas of convergence and distinction, and identifies where the NZFT goes beyond existing guidance.  

The frameworks are grouped into three categories — Disclosure, Assessment, and Guidance — positioning the NZFT as an assessment layer that enables consistent benchmarking and comparison of transition planning practices across institutions. 

Navigating beyond disclosure to real economy outcomes 

While most transition planning frameworks focus on targets, governance, and disclosure commitments, the NZFT also tracks which companies and projects FIs finance, the composition and scale of exposures across their portfolios, and the climate risks embedded in their portfolios. These impact indicators provide a quantitative, real-economy perspective on climate performance, complementing qualitative assessments of transition plan quality by showing whether transition planning is translating into changes in capital allocation and measurable real-world outcomes. 

The framework coverage reflects the most relevant, credible, and influential frameworks in transition planning and climate disclosure. The selected frameworks span disclosure, assessment, and guidance across geographies, regulatory contexts, methodologies, and voluntary initiatives. They also align with the broader analytical scope of the 2026 NZFT update by including frameworks relevant not only to investors, but also to banks and other credit institutions. 
 

Download the report to explore the framework analysis, understand where framework best practices are converging, and learn how the NZFT can support more credible and effective transition planning.

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