Sustainability thinking is rapidly gaining traction. It offers an inspiring vision for the future of the world and provides significant business and investment opportunities. Based on insights from over 300 empirical studies, this book explores the possibilities in the field of renewable energy finance, carbon trading, and sustainable investing. In addition, it describes innovative finance mechanisms – such as green bonds and peer-to-peer lending – that may further spur environmental and social sustainability. By taking an empirical, fact-based approach, this book aims to provide investors, business executives, and policymakers with a more thorough understanding of how sustainable finance can create value for business and society. Key words: Sustainable finance, renewable energy finance, cleantech, green investing, sustainable investments, responsible investments, carbon trading, carbon finance, ESG, impact investing.

This book is among the first to address the issue of assessing the efficiency of sustainable development financing from a theoretical and methodical point of view. The innovative nature of research is expressed through the study of new phenomena in finance including sustainable financial systems, sustainable finance, ESG risk and individual and institutional motivations of financial managers in the sustainability concept. The book aims to draw attention to the significant gap in the existing research.The concept of Sustainable Development, if placed in an economic category, requires a lot of attention, but seeing the cognitive category from the perspective of the discipline of finance, the latter is unsatisfactory, with questions remaining unanswered. At the same time, the rank problem, its strategic dimension and the amount of financial resources allocated and disbursed for the purposes of focusing around sustainable development, identification of financial phenomena accompanying this category is seen as a priority. Most measures financing Sustainable Development and measures of public spending efficiency are measures subject to rigor and rules due to their specificity, which means actions aimed at increasing efficiency are treated as a priority. This book will be of interest to leading representatives of academia, practitioners, executives, officials, and graduate students in economics, finance, management, statistics, law and political sciences.

Long term asset owners and managers, while seeking high risk-adjusted returns and efficiently allocating scarce financial capital to the highest value economic activities, have the essential and formidable role of ensuring the sustainability of return. But generally accepted financial accounting methods are ill-equipped to provide clear signals of the risks and opportunities created by scarce natural and human capital. Hence many investment managers in global financial markets, while performing due diligence on portfolio companies, examine metrics of non-financial performance, especially environmental, social and governance (ESG) indicators. Broken into three sections, this book outlines the rationale for and methods used in six areas where financial acumen has been harnessed to the goal of combining monetary return with long run sustainability. The first section offers an introduction to the role of finance in achieving sustainability, and includes an overview of the six areas—sustainable investing, impact investing, decentralized finance, conservation finance, and cleantech finance. The methods section of the book illustrates analytical tools and specialized data sources essential to those interested in increasing the level of social responsibility embedded in economic activity. The applications section describes and differentiates each of the six areas and their roles in advancing specific measures of sustainability.

This volume presents the proceedings of the ZAFIN Finance and Sustainability conference, organized by the Wroclaw University of Economics in cooperation with Corvinus University of Budapest and the University of Economics in Prague. The contributing authors analyze a variety of issues concerning recent finance problems, including corporate finance, public finance, monetary and fiscal policy issues, and risk management. The book also addresses topics connected to sustainable finance, the transition to green economies, corporate sustainability and sustainable development. The target audience for this book includes researchers at universities and research and policy institutions, graduate students, and practitioners in economics and finance working for private or government institutions.

The book explains the impact of bank business models on company business models by discussing the relationship among banks decision-making processes, sustainable values creation in company business models, and ESG risk. The monograph provides a combination of financial and management-related activities, in the context of bank business models, taking into account the concept of sustainability, and will be of particular interest to both in-house practitioners, giving them innovative knowledge about the models presented and used, and to students and young researchers. The project is financed within the framework of the program of the Minister of Science and Higher Education under the name „Regional Excellence Initiative” in the years 2019 – 2022; project number 001/RID/2018/19; the amount of financing PLN 10,684,000.00.

This handbook deals with various financial instruments, policies, and strategies in a policy-oriented approach for financing green energy projects. Recently, global investment in renewables and energy efficiency has declined, and there is a risk that it will slow further, Clearly, fossil fuels still dominate energy investments. This trend could threaten the expansion of green energy needed to meet energy security, climate, and clean-air goals. Several developed and developing economies are still following pro-coal energy policies. The extra CO2 generated from new coal-fired power plants could more than eliminate any reductions in emissions made by other nations. Finance is the engine of development of infrastructural projects, including energy projects. By providing several thematic and country chapters, this handbook explains that if we plan to achieve sustainable development goals, we need to create opportunities for new green projects and scale up the financing of investments that furnish environmental benefits. New financial instruments and policies such as green bonds, green banks, carbon market instruments, fiscal policy, green central banking, fintech, and community-based green funds are among the chief components that make up green finance. Naoyuki Yoshino is Dean, Asian Development Bank Institute and Professor Emeritus, Keio University. Jeffery Sachs is Director, Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University. Wing Thye Woo is Professor of Economics, U.C. Davis. Farhad Taghizadeh-Hesary is Assistant Professor, Waseda University.

More than 120 countries have committed to net zero targets by 2050, requiring systemic economic transitions on an unprecedented scale and with the finance sector playing a leading role. Green finance will power the transition, ensuring capital flows to the firms, investments, projects and technologies looking to create a sustainable, low-carbon world. To achieve net zero, every professional financial decision must take climate change and broader sustainability factors into account. Green and Sustainable Finance provides a comprehensive guide to the application of common green and sustainable principles and practices in banking, investment and insurance to help finance professionals embed these in their daily activities and decision-making. Focusing on the necessity of mainstreaming green and sustainable finance globally, this book includes a clear explanation of the science underpinning climate change. Green and Sustainable Finance covers a wide range of green finance products and services in retail, commercial and corporate banking, insurance, investment and fintech. It provides an overview of emerging regulation and international market frameworks and standards, particularly in relation to climate and environmental risk. Consideration is also given to the ethical dimensions of green and sustainable finance, including how professionals can promote market integrity and take active steps to avoid greenwashing. Endorsed by the Chartered Banker Institute as the core text for the benchmark Certificate in Green and Sustainable Finance, this book is essential reading for finance professionals and students, and individuals working to embed sustainability in business, policy and regulation.