Library | Sustainable Finance Practices
Fixing financial and economic systems
Resources aimed at transforming financial and economic systems to prioritise human well-being, equity, and environmental sustainability. These resources include tools, networks, and guidance on systemic changes such as systems thinking, degrowth, green growth, doughnut economics, decoupling economic growth from environmental degradation, and adhering to limits to growth.
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Financing a sustainable global bioeconomy
This report highlights the role of bioeconomy finance in addressing climate, nature, and equity goals. This report analyses challenges, instruments, and opportunities for financing the bioeconomy globally, advocating for integrated strategies and international collaboration. It emphasises equitable development, biodiversity conservation, and the potential for job creation and economic growth.
Financial system interactions with ecosystem tipping points: Evidence from the Brazilian Amazon and Indonesian peatlands
Examining the interplay between financial systems and ecological thresholds, this research identifies pivotal financial flows linked to land use changes in the Brazilian Amazon and Indonesian peatlands. It proposes targeted interventions to steer these investments towards sustainable practices, emphasising the need for global policy alignment to mitigate the systemic risks posed by ecosystem tipping points.
Advancing resilient nature positive insurance in Australia
This report highlights the essential role of nature in supporting the global economy, underscoring the insurance sector's crucial function in managing financial and economic risks linked to nature loss. This encompasses integrating nature-related considerations into underwriting and investment activities and advancing nature-positive insurance practices.
Investing in natural capital: Innovations supporting much-needed financing for nature
The report highlights the growing importance of natural capital in economic and environmental sustainability. It emphasises technological advances, innovative financial instruments, and new business models that support nature-positive investments. The report also presents case studies showcasing successful projects aimed at preserving biodiversity and scaling investments in natural capital through innovative financing mechanisms and technology-driven solutions.
Deep blue: Opportunities for blue carbon finance in coastal ecosystems
This report explores the growing opportunities for blue carbon finance in coastal ecosystems, focusing on mangroves, saltmarshes, and seagrass meadows. It highlights the significant potential of these ecosystems to mitigate climate change, generate carbon credits, and provide essential co-benefits, including biodiversity conservation and economic resilience for coastal communities. Despite increasing interest, challenges in securing funding and scaling projects remain key barriers to unlocking their full potential.
Cooler finance: Mobilizing investment for the developing world’s sustainable cooling needs
The report highlights the critical need for sustainable cooling in developing countries to meet climate goals, reduce emissions, and support health, food security, and productivity. It estimates a market demand of $600 billion annually by 2050 and provides strategies to attract private investment through policy, financing models, and international collaboration.
The building blocks supporting open finance
This working paper explores how open finance can drive financial inclusion by reducing costs, improving access, and providing better-suited products for underserved populations. Key building blocks—digital accounts, fast payments, and diverse financial providers—are essential for achieving open finance's potential, with case studies from Brazil and India highlighting successful implementation pathways.
The effect of pricing instruments on CO2 emissions: Empirical evidence from Australia
The report evaluates Australia's short-lived carbon tax and renewable energy policies. It finds a 7% per capita emissions reduction from 2009 to 2018, with effects weakening after policy repeal. Coal exports increased during this period, potentially offsetting domestic emission reductions.
The demand for a fair international financial architecture
The report explores the Global South's calls for reforming the international financial system. It highlights six key outcomes: improved representation, faster response times, increased funding scale, sustainable financing, enhanced global solidarity, and fostering economic self-reliance. The report underscores the urgency of reforming global financial institutions to address disparities.
Securing minerals for the energy transition: Unlocking the value chain through policy, investment and innovation
The report highlights the need for collaboration and innovation to secure a stable supply of critical minerals. These minerals are essential for the energy transition but face supply-demand imbalances. The report discusses financial and regulatory barriers and outlines solutions involving policy initiatives, stakeholder partnerships, and investment to ensure a sustainable, affordable, and available supply of critical minerals for clean energy technologies.
From fragmentation to integration: Embedding social issues in sustainable finance
The report calls for integrating social risks into financial strategies. It emphasises the interconnectedness of social and environmental issues and recommends enhancing research, standards, and tools to address socio-economic inequalities, promoting financial stability and sustainability.
Leveraged buyouts: A survey of the literature
This report provides a comprehensive review of leveraged buyouts (LBOs), covering their motives, value creation mechanisms, and trends in public-to-private transactions. Key factors discussed include agency cost reduction, tax benefits, stakeholder wealth transfers, and corporate restructuring processes. It also highlights empirical evidence from the US, UK, and Europe, examining the resurgence of LBOs in the early 2000s.
Predatory trade finance: The impact of bargaining power and financing constraints on the demand and supply of trade credit
The report examines how disparities in bargaining power affect trade credit negotiations in emerging economies. The findings highlight that financially constrained firms often provide trade credit to more powerful counterparts, leading to inefficiencies and negative outcomes for suppliers, challenging the notion that trade credit is beneficial for growth.
Circle Economy's circularity gap report series
The Circularity Gap Report series, launched annually since 2018 by Circle Economy, offers key insights into the global circular economy. Each report focuses on vital topics driving action, from the first global metric in 2018 to industry and country perspectives in subsequent years.
Intelligent financial system: How AI is transforming finance
The report explores the transformative role of AI in the financial sector, focusing on financial intermediation, insurance, asset management, and payments. It highlights both opportunities and challenges, including implications for financial stability and the need for upgraded financial regulation to manage the risks associated with AI's growing influence.
How the oil industry has sustained market dominance through policy influence
The report details how the oil and gas industry has systematically opposed renewable energy and electric vehicles through a long-standing narrative playbook. This opposition has hindered the global energy transition, contributing significantly to continued high emissions and delaying critical climate action.