Discover engaging green finance events this May 2025. Browse the calendar and register for events that align with your interests through the links below:
以上一圖看清2025年5月精彩的綠色金融活動！如欲參加及了解活動詳情，歡迎瀏覽以下網址:
8 May [1] Availability and Credibility of ESG Data
13 May [2] Development of ESG Information Disclosure Regulations in China
21 May [3] SFi Impact Summit 2025: The Power of Momentum
28 May [4] A Nexus of Sustainability, Financial Markets, and Scientific Innovation
[Certified ESG Analyst Insights Sharing] Spencer Liu, CESGA
In the 2020s, momentum behind sustainable transportation is unmistakable – from electric vehicles (EVs) to charging infrastructure, we’ve seen a groundswell of adoption and investment. Yet the full sustainability potential across transport modes remains untapped. Emerging solutions like sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), green methanol and ammonia, and e-fuels are gaining some ground, but they continue to carry a green premium: higher capital expenditures and operating costs compared to their fossil-fuel counterparts.
Finance plays an inseparable role in closing this gap. The ability to scale these technologies hinges not only on innovation, but also on access to patient, risk-tolerant capital that can support early deployment, aggregate demand, and eventually drive costs down.
In an ideal world, carbon emissions would be fairly priced, regulatory signals would be clear and stable, and green investments would offer both climate and financial returns. Over time, economies of scale and technological learning curves would shrink the green premium. But in today’s fragmented global context, recent developments are pushing us further away from that equilibrium.
Take maritime shipping as an example. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) recently advanced plans to introduce a global cap on carbon emissions for ocean shipping, including a significant penalty for ships exceeding carbon intensity thresholds starting from 2028. While this is a major step toward internalizing emissions costs, it’s far from universally supported. For example, the current US administration has voiced opposition to these mechanisms, citing concerns about competitiveness and economic burden, adding uncertainty for investors and operators alike.
In addition, an emerging wave of trade protectionism – reflected in rising tariffs on goods – is disrupting supply chains and delaying the cost reductions that green transport technologies, such as EVs, batteries, and clean tech components, depend on. These measures not only raise the cost of deploying clean technologies but also undermine returns on critical infrastructure – such as EV charging networks, battery recycling plants, and low-carbon fuel bunkering hubs – by creating uncertainty around future utilization and demand.
The result is a prolonged vicious cycle that keeps the green premium high and adoption low: green solutions are expensive not just because of high costs, but because the returns are distant, uncertain, and vulnerable to political risks.
Despite these challenges, today presents a critical moment for leadership. The costs of inaction – regulatory lock-ins, stranded assets, and geopolitical exposure – are rising. At the same time, first movers in clean transportation are shaping the next decade of supply chains, trade corridors, and capital flows. Here is what businesses and financiers can do to stay ahead:
1. Anchor investments with strategic intent
Businesses should view green investments as enablers of long-term competitiveness, not just short-term returns. Investing in SAF or green bunkering infrastructure, for example, may not yield immediate margins, but helps secure future market access, compliance readiness, and brand value. This also applies to financiers: transition-aligned portfolios require reallocation of capital now, recognizing future fuel cost shifts and regulatory tightening. Integrating forward-looking metrics – such as internal carbon pricing or emissions trajectories – into credit portfolios is key.
2. Deploy blended finance and de-risking
tools
Public-private capital stacks can unlock projects that otherwise fail
conventional hurdle rates. Financiers should work with multilateral banks,
public agencies, and philanthropic funds to design blended finance structures
with concessional or first-loss tranches. These tools have proven effective in
clean energy and are highly transferable to transportation – from bus
electrification to green port infrastructure.
3. Shape sustainable financing principles
through cross-market collaboration
Businesses and financiers can work together across borders to establish
consistent aligned sustainable financing principles. Collaborative efforts – such
as the Poseidon Principles for climate-aligned shipping finance – demonstrate
how cross-market standards can reduce regulatory fragmentation, increase
investment predictability, and create a level playing field.
4. Aggregate demand through alliances
Pooling commitments through coalitions like the First Movers Coalition, Cargo
Owners for Zero Emission Vessels (coZEV), and the Sustainable Freight Buyers
Alliance helps justify infrastructure investments and reduce counterparty risk.
Demand aggregation (while complying with competition laws and regulations)
increases certainty for financiers and enables lower-cost capital deployment.
The transition to sustainable transportation is undeniably complex. Timely investment in infrastructure and technologies, alongside collective demand, would be necessary for such transition to scale and green premium to be reduced or potentially eliminated. For financiers and businesses, the opportunity now lies in designing strategies that reward leadership, hedge against delay, and build the systems we will depend on tomorrow.
This article is written by a holder of the EFFAS Certified Environmental, Social, and Governance Analyst (CESGA). CESGA is a globally recognised qualification whose prominence continues to grow worldwide. CESGA has recently achieved a significant milestone as the first programme accredited by European standard setter EFRAG for compliance with the ESRS sustainability disclosure requirements in the EU (mandatory from 2025). For enrolment details, please visit https://bit.ly/40chuOR.
Green Finance Engagement Team
The renewable energy sector is growing at an unprecedented pace as the world races to meet climate targets.
Renewable power generation reached a historic milestone, providing 32% of global electricity in 2024. Investments in renewable energy also hit a record US$728 billion last year, driving global investments in the low-carbon energy transition to surpass the US$2 trillion threshold for the first time in 2024, according to BloombergNEF’s Energy Transition Investment Trends 2025 report.
However, a significant financing gap remains, particularly in emerging markets where only one-fifth of global clean energy investments is currently taking place. The global share of renewable energy will also need to nearly double by 2030 to achieve net-zero emissions by mid-century.
The third instalment in our series explores how green finance is driving the deployment of renewable energy and examines the challenges that lie ahead.
The Renewable Energy Revolution
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) Renewables 2024 report, renewable energy needs to provide nearly 60% of global electricity generation by 2030 in the Net Zero Emissions (NZE) scenario. Renewable power generation provided a record 32% of global electricity last year, according to energy think tank Ember’s Global Electricity Review 2025.
Global renewable power generation capacity is projected to grow 2.3 times by 2030, adding around 5,500 gigawatts (GW) of new capacity, according to the IEA’s World Energy Outlook 2024. Solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind power is expected to dominate this growth, accounting for 95% of all renewable capacity growth through the end of this decade.
Annual clean energy investment will also need to more than double to US$4.5 trillion by the early 2030s to align with climate goals. Moreover, for every dollar spent on renewable power, only 60 cents are spent on grids and storage. Investments in grids and storage is expected to reach parity with that in renewable generation by the 2040s, creating a balanced and resilient energy system, according to the IEA.
How Green Finance is Driving Renewable Energy Deployment
Green finance has been accelerating the adoption of renewable energy through several key mechanisms.
Equity and debt issuances for climate and energy transition purposes totaled US$1 trillion in 2024, providing crucial capital for renewable energy projects worldwide, according to BloombergNEF.
Blended finance, which uses funding from public and philanthropic sources to mobilise additional private sector investment, has also achieved notable success in Sub-Saharan Africa, attracting 61% of global concessional financing in 2020, according to The State of Blended Finance 2021 report by Convergence.
The Daybreak project in Nigeria shows how blended finance helped provide distributed renewable energy solutions as an alternative to diesel generators for commercial and industrial customers, in a nation with an unreliable grid supply and frequent blackouts. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) provided US$20 million equivalent in financing to Daybreak in 2021, enabling Nigeria’s second largest provider of commercial solar hybrid power to increase its solar photovoltaic capacity fourfold, helping to catalyse the nation’s distributed renewable energy sector.
The Cost of Delay
Failing to scale renewable energy deployment would have severe consequences:
The IEA’s 2024 World Energy Outlook emphasises that while global carbon dioxide emissions are projected to peak before 2030, without a sharp decline afterwards, the world is on course for a rise of 2.4°C in global average temperatures by 2100, well above the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C.
Green finance provides the tools to accelerate deployment and ensure these consequences are avoided.
Key Takeaways
Looking Ahead
The transformation of our energy system depends on successfully scaling renewable energy deployment. As highlighted in our previous posts on financing the energy transition and regional investment disparities, green financing mechanisms are proving their effectiveness in mobilising capital for clean energy. In the next post, we’ll examine how green finance is supporting the critical infrastructure needed to integrate renewables, including transmission, storage, and smart grid technologies.
Stay tuned as we continue to explore how green finance is powering the clean energy revolution.
Green Finance Engagement Team
The second primer in our Green and Sustainable Finance Spotlight Series gives an overview of carbon markets and explores the mechanisms that put a price on greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon markets are becoming increasingly important in reducing carbon emissions globally, so understanding how they work is crucial to making informed financial decisions.
What are Carbon Markets and Carbon Pricing Mechanisms?
Carbon markets and pricing mechanisms assign financial value to greenhouse gas emissions, giving institutions an incentive to reduce their environmental footprint.
These systems enable the trading of carbon credits, which represent verified emissions reductions. Transactions usually occur between organisations that can reduce emissions at lower costs and those that find it more expensive to do so.
The main carbon pricing approaches include:
Key Market Developments Around the World
Market Size and Growth
According to MSCI, over 6,200 carbon projects were registered across major international crediting registries by the end of 2024. These projects issued 305 million tonnes of carbon credits in 2024 and have now issued more than 2.1 billion credits since the Paris Agreement was signed in late 2016. Carbon credits worth a total of US$1.4 billion were used by corporations last year, slightly below 2022’s peak of US$1.7 billion.
With more companies setting climate goals and favourable policy developments, including the finalisation of the UN Paris Agreement’s Article 6 rules for international carbon trading at COP29, the market is expected to grow significantly.
MSCI projects the global carbon credit market could rise in value to at least US$7 billion, and as much as US$35 billion, by 2030. By 2050, the market is estimated to be worth between US$45 and US$250 billion.
Source: MSCI
Why Should Companies and Investors Care?
For Companies:
For Investors:
Getting Started
Companies can:
Investors can:
Conclusion
Carbon markets and carbon pricing mechanisms serve as essential tools for channelling global investments towards greenhouse gas reduction. As these markets evolve and expand, understanding their dynamics becomes increasingly critical for both effective financial decision-making and meaningful climate action.
