Insights Blog

"As the appetite for green finance grows in both public and private markets, there will likely be more opportunities for capital availability via blended finance," says Michael Wilkins, Head of Sustainable Finance at S&P Global Ratings.

How can ambition, individual projects, and high-level targets be translated into wide-ranging action on the ground? A new book, Investing in Resource Efficiency: The Economics and Politics of Financing the Resource Transition, covers the multi-faceted incentives and complex trade-offs associated with investing in the resource transition – the move towards more resource efficient and circular economies.

The global electric vehicle (EV) market continues to power up, with potential global sales of 11 million in 2025. The two case studies described in this blog illustrate examples of policy stickiness and policy ambition.

How can we incentivize leadership to make long-term decisions for the common benefit of mankind? How can we educate and activate the global public to understand and join this struggle? And how do we re-imagine the economy so that the opportunities of the green transition are not only realized, but spread more evenly among all peoples, rather than leading to increased inequality and instability?

In order to make wise investment choices, financial institutions need to understand "how environmental change creates risks and opportunities for businesses and those that fund them." A new product, ENCORE (Exploring Natural Capital Opportunities, Risks and Exposure), allows users to do just that by demonstrating how the economy depends on nature.

"We cannot enjoy prosperity for the few at the expense of the many. We cannot build walls that would keep out a changing climate or dirty air or water that becomes our common heritage," says Steven Stone, Head of the Markets and Resources Branch, Economy Division at UN Environment, in the wake of the 2019 PAGE Ministerial Conference in South Africa.

"Our attachment to existing knowledge and belief systems can often stand in the way of getting a better appreciation of how the world works; only when major crises occur, or when a generation of decision-makers is replaced by a new one, do people recognise the need to use new lenses for “reading” the world around them," says Martine Durand, Chief Statistician and Director of OECD Statistics and Data Directorate.

When half of a country’s wealth is natural capital it is vital this resource is managed well. If people, businesses and government policies put natural capital at risk, then long term sustainable development is jeopardised. A recent meeting in Kampala, Uganda, discussed how natural capital accounts can inform better decision making for a viable future.

"GDP as an indicator has limited capability in differentiating between positive and negative growth externalities and might not reveal the ideal sustainable growth path. By omitting natural and social capital, GDP lacks an inclusive, holistic, and futuristic vision," says Namita Vikas, Group President & Global Head of Climate Strategy & Responsible Banking for YES BANK LTD.

"I think of GDP as a proxy for the well-being that most people desire. At times it is a very poor proxy. It could be improved by expanding the definition of ‘productivity’ and the definition of ‘capital’ in the ‘marginal productivity of capital’ notion that drives growth in most economic models," says Anton Cartwright, green economy researcher at the African Centre for Cities and senior associate of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership.