Our topics

Sustainable finance

Supporting climate compatible policies and investment decision making in order to avoid stranded assets and catalyse finance to bring about sustainable, rapid, and far-reaching transitions towards deep decarbonisation.

Climate compatible finance

Overview

Driving deep decarbonisation with climate resilient infrastructure in line with the Paris Agreement will require massive investment in climate solutions. Current investments flows are however not consistent with either global climate or sustainable development objectives. Debates around sustainable finance today will play a key role in shifting financial flows that will have important implications for emissions patterns and progress  for decades to come. Urgent action is needed to foster enabling environments for Paris aligned investments, phase-out investments in high emissions activities and thereby avoiding further stranded assets. A deeper understanding of transition finance needs at the country and sector level is an important element to facilitate climate aligned finance; as well as the implementation of effective finance and de-risking mechanisms and policy change to mobilise sufficient transitional investment from private and public sources.

Our interdisciplinary team combines global insights with in-country development cooperation and technical expertise to support policy makers, investors, business, and civil society to:

  • Develop criteria and tools for Paris aligned investment decision making
  • Support reforms and development and implementation of climate strategies in public and development finance organisations
  • Track and analyse finance sector climate initiatives and their impact
  • Analyse  climate risk, especially transition  and high carbon lock-in risk
  • Analyse national and sectoral investment and transition finance needs
  • Analyse  effective finance instruments and enabling policies

 

Promoting low-carbon and climate-resilient development in Argentina

In recent years, Argentina has published a series of key policies to guide its low-carbon transition, including the National Mitigation...

Financing Coal Phase-out: The Role of Public Development Banks

Limiting global average temperature rise to 1.5°C requires stopping the construction of new coal power plants, and that many existing...

Tracking the progress of subnational and non-state climate action

Page navigation About the project The consortium Relevant publications About the project CAMDA is a community of data and analytical...

Operationalization Framework on Aligning with the Paris Agreement

In 2017, the International Development Finance Club (IDFC) together with the group of Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) made a...

Strengthen national climate policy implementation: Comparative empirical learning & creating linkage to climate finance (SNAPFI)

This project supports NDC implementation in partner countries (Brazil, Germany/ EU, India, Indonesia, and South Africa) with research...

Deep Decarbonisation in Latin America

The project is funded by the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German government and implemented by SouthSouthNorth (lead)...

Landscape of Climate Finance: Promoting debate on climate finance flows in Central Europe

The transition to a low-carbon economy requires an unprecedented redirection of financial flows towards sustainable investments. In...

Multilateral Development Banks and the Paris Agreement

NewClimate Institute, together with  Germanwatch, WRI and E3G, provides inputs to multilateral development banks in supporting the...

Innovative Financing Options for the Adaptation Fund

The Adaptation Fund is an established fund that supports developing countries in managing impacts of climate change with special...

2°C compatible investment criteria

NewClimate Institute led a consortium of Germanwatch, the 2°investing initiative and McKinsey to develop criteria and a toolkit for...

Green Hydrogen for Sustainable Development: The Role of Multilateral Development Banks
Publication date 16 May 2024

This report examines the potential role of multilateral development banks (MDBs) in ensuring that Global South producer countries...

Caution on co-firing, retrofitting, and carbon credits for retirement: Considerations for public development banks on coal phase-out risks
Publication date 07 Mar 2024

This report was co-written by NewClimate Institute and the Institute for Climate Economics (I4CE). The first global stocktake decision...

Financing coal phase-out: Public development banks’ role in the early retirement of coal plants
Publication date 07 Mar 2024

This report was co-written by NewClimate Institute and the Institute for Climate Economics (I4CE). Limiting global average temperature...

The role of green hydrogen in a just, Paris-compatible transition
Publication date 01 Nov 2023

While sustainable development and global equity are at the core of the Paris Agreement, inequalities between wealthy and poor countries...

From Rhetoric to Reality: Investigating Financial Institutions' Net Zero Portfolio Commitments
Publication date 18 Sep 2023

As of July 2023, 37 of the world's largest 50 asset managers, 24 of the largest 50 asset owners, and 33 of the largest 50 banks have...

The little book of City Climate Finance
Publication date 31 Aug 2023

The rapid urbanisation of the world's population has placed a significant strain on urban infrastructure, which is further compounded...

Climate investment in the food & agriculture sector in Latin America - The cases of biochar and protein transition in Argentina
Publication date 28 Jul 2023

Achieving the Paris Agreement necessitates transformative changes across all sectors globally, including significant reductions in...

The role of international climate finance for bridging the low carbon investment gap
Publication date 29 Jun 2023

Principles of international climate finance The IPCC Special Report on 1.5 degrees shows that urgent action is needed to mitigate...

Renewable Senegal
Publication date 02 Jun 2023

Senegal has already had major success in renewable energy development but is coming to a threshold where additional measures will be...

Climate Audit of the EU’s Foreign Policy
Publication date 28 Apr 2023

The European Green Deal shifted climate to a central pillar of the European political agenda. It sets out the ambition to be a climate...

Net zero or zero sense: Three reasons to rethink financial institutions' voluntary targets
Publication date 07 Jun 2024

Asset managers, asset owners and other financial institutions manage much of the capital required to transition to low-carbon economies...

COP28 needs to switch mode from finding the smallest common denominator to achieving what was before unimaginable
Publication date 22 Nov 2023

The 28th Conference of Parties of the UNFCCC (COP) takes place from 30 November - 12 December 2023, at the end of another year of...

Response to GFANZ APAC June 2023 Consultation
Publication date 02 Nov 2023

NewClimate Institute and the Institute for Climate Economics (I4CE) submitted a response to a public consultation on the Glasgow...

Not all ETF providers are made the same
Publication date 06 Jul 2023

Passive investing is on the rise, but retail investors should be aware of the differences in the way asset managers handle corporate...

The World Bank’s sector notes encourage the consideration of transitions, but lack sufficient detail to ensure full alignment with the Paris agreement
Publication date 10 May 2023

A joint blog by NewClimate Institute, Germanwatch, E3G, and NRDC by Hanna Fekete, Imogen Outlaw, Santiago Woollands, Anja Gebel, Laura...

Review of “Paris compatible sectoral guidelines of the KfW Banking Group” for Electricity, Oil, and Gas
Publication date 27 Mar 2023

Background and summary: At COP 26 in Glasgow in 2021, Germany signed a pledge to end international finance of fossil fuels by the end...

Climate action in agriculture is essential for food security
Publication date 27 Oct 2022

This blog is part of a series debunking ‘myths’ about trade-offs between climate action and development. It is intended for decision...

German support for gas investments abroad is mostly not compatible with the Paris Agreement
Publication date 20 Oct 2022

This blog was first published in German. In the wake of the Russian invasion in Ukraine and the resulting energy crisis, in June 2022...

Deutsche Unterstützung für Gas-Investitionen im Ausland ist in den allermeisten Fällen nicht mit Pariser Klimaschutzabkommen vereinbar
Publication date 20 Oct 2022

This blog is also available in English. Angesichts des russischen Angriffskriegs auf die Ukraine und der daraus resultierenden...

Koalition braucht dringend einheitliche Klima-Außenpolitik
Publication date 12 Oct 2022

Die mit einer vielbeachteten Vision angetretene Ampelregierung agiert in der Außenpolitik noch ohne klaren Kompass. Das darf sich...

Virtual Launch: The Role of Multilateral Development Banks in Sustainable Green Hydrogen Development
Venue Online
Date 16 May 2024
Start time 02:00 pm

On 16 May we hosted a launch webinar and panel discussion for our report on The Role of Multilateral Development Banks in Sustainable...

COP28: Early retirement of fossil fuel assets
Venue IDFC pavilion, Blue Zone
Date 11 Dec 2023
Start time 06:30 pm

This side event aimed to support development banks to learn how they could best mobilise finance to enable ambitious early retirement...

COP28: Funding the Green Transition: Navigating Developing Countries’ Climate Finance Needs
Venue SE Room 8, Zone B6
Date 09 Dec 2023
Start time 03:00 pm

In the context of the Global Stocktake and negotiations on the NCQC to mobilise climate finance, this side event discussed articulation...

NDC4 webinars: Financing Green Cooling – Opportunities for Financial Institutions
Venue online
Date 31 Oct 2023
Start time 11:00 am

One of the challenges to achieve a sustainable transformation of the refrigeration and air conditioning sector is the provision and...

MOP35: Workshop energy efficiency in the refrigeration, air conditioning and heat pump (RACHP) sector
Venue hybrid, United Nations Office Nairobi and online
Date 22 Oct 2023
Start time 08:00 am

This event was a pre-meeting workshop to the 35th Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone...

Online event: Boosting multilateral investments for biodiversity
Venue Online
Date 08 Dec 2022
Start time 12:00 pm

In the framework of the OECD Multilateral Development Finance Week 2022, NewClimate joined E3G's event on boosting multilateral...

COP27: Aligning financial institutions’ strategies and operations with the Paris Agreement objectives
Venue COP27, IDFC Pavilion and Online
Date 16 Nov 2022
Start time 04:00 pm

An event hosted by International Development Finance Club exploring 2050 pathways for climate and sustainability finance. The event...

COP27: Ready for the next crisis? How MDBs can support the transition to a low-carbon, resilient economy by aligning with the Paris Agreement (shareholder and CSO perspectives)
Venue COP27, EU Online Pavilion
Date 16 Nov 2022
Start time 12:30 pm

The event provided an overview of the state of play and remaining challenges of the multilateral development banks’ (MDBs’) Paris...

Workshop: Landscape of climate finance: From supporting recovery globally to recent advances in the CEE region
Venue Online
Date 27 Oct 2020

Aki Kachi presented on "Current trends in green recovery measures" at the "Landscape of climate finance: From supporting recovery...

Online event: Unpacking the finance sector's investment commitments
Venue Climate Week NYC 2020
Date 28 Sep 2020

Katharina Lütkehermöller, Thomas Day (both NewClimate), Mark Roelfsema (Utrecht University), Jesica Andrews (Net Zero Asset Owner...

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