Financing for the Environment & Climate

Financing for a Sustainable Future

A.
Global Institutional Financing

global financing for the environment and climate

1. Integrate environmental and climate priorities into the policies of global finance institutions, and coordinate progress through annual UN Climate Finance Summits.
2. Develop globally aligned environmental- and climate-impact reporting standards for multilateral finance institutions and global financial markets – to strengthen environmental and climate accountability.
3. Develop global climate-risk criteria with tiered rankings to prioritize climate finance and concessional lending toward the most climate-vulnerable countries and regions.
4. Mandate ecological and climate risk-disclosures across global financial institutions, corporate lenders, and investment funds – to guide private capital toward environmentally and climate-responsible investment.
5. Require national laws, fiscal policies, and budget plans to strengthen environmental and biodiversity protection, and advance clean-energy transition, as conditions for receiving global institutional financing.
6. Strengthen global financing for nature-based climate solutions such as ecological carbon-capture through forest, wetland, marine, and soil restoration.
7. Expand targeted direct financing to assist countries with the greatest environmental and climate needs – through grants, emergency funds, and concessional loans provided by UN agencies, multilateral development banks, and global funds.
8. Increase inclusive participation in international financial decision-making regarding ecological and climate priorities – by integrating input from climate-vulnerable countries, regional ecological experts, and local indigenous communities.
9. Reduce systemic bias in global finance institutions that favor large-scale, high-profit projects centrally managed by major corporations and large private-asset funds with substantial collateral – rather than financing smaller-scale, lower-profit, decentralized projects and community-based enterprises with limited collateral.
10. Reform credit-rating systems in multilateral development banks and expand concessional lending to lower borrowing costs for long-term climate mitigation and adaptation projects.
11. Lower prudential capital-reserve requirements and reduce regulatory risk-weights applied by global banks and insurers for ecological- and climate-beneficial investments.
12. Expand climate credit-risk guarantees provided by international public institutions to attract private finance into climate-vulnerable regions and priority climate sectors.
13. Eliminate IMF debt-related surcharges and increase access to Special Drawing Rights for poorer countries to invest in high-priority ecological restoration and climate adaptation.
14. Establish a global Sovereign Debt Advisory Committee to offer suggestions for debt relief and restructuring, guided by priorities of human well-being and economic-sustainability, and expand the use of debt-for-nature and debt-for-climate swaps in sovereign debt solutions.
15. Provide advisory support to under-developed countries to improve their fiscal, financial, and monetary systems to build sustainable and climate-responsible economies.
16. Measure national economic progress beyond GDP using indicators reflecting human well-being, social development, flourishing ecosystems, climate responsibility, and a sustainable future.
17. Establish global environmental tax levies on multinational corporations and sovereign activities (including militaries) that measurably harm ecosystems or the global climate, with revenues directed to ecological and climate financing in areas of greatest need.
18. Strengthen international tax cooperation to curb tax avoidance, profit shifting, and illicit financial flows, and redirect recovered revenues toward environmental and climate financing.
19. Establish a 1% Global Responsibility Tax on the annual profits of large multinational corporations, with revenues distributed through existing UN programs as direct grants and concessional financing for ecological restoration, climate action, and social development.
20. Mobilize $500 billion annually to expand financing for worldwide climate projects, loss-and-damage recovery, and climate-damage response.

B.
Government Fiscal Policy
and Public Investment

public spending for environmental and climate needs

1. Integrate environmental and climate priorities into national and local government budgets to advance environmental health, ecological restoration, sustainable clean energy, and climate resilience.
2. Provide direct public funding and concessional lending to advance ecological and climate-beneficial projects, services, and enterprises.
3. Establish national investment funds to offer grants and concessional loans for long-term ecological and climate projects, informed by scientific and technical assessment.
4. Expand clean energy, develop circular economies, and advance ecological restoration in cities and rural regions by providing financial, scientific, and technical assistance.
5. Expand public employment in ecological restoration, soil and forest regeneration, environmental improvements, and climate-related projects.
6. Align public procurement and national trade policies with ecological sustainability, climate responsibility, and green-economy development.
7. Implement progressive taxation on excessive private wealth, corporate assets, and extremely high incomes to fund ecological and climate projects, public infrastructure, essential social services, and to reduce wealth inequality.
8. Measure economic progress with indicators beyond GDP – reflecting values such as environmental health, climate resilience, and social wellbeing.
9. Build bilateral and regional partnerships between governments to pool public capital and jointly fund shared ecological and climate projects.
10. Mobilize regional private capital for environmental and climate projects by forming public-private finance partnerships that leverage pooled public funds and shared risk-guarantees.

C.
Government Market-Shaping Policies

guiding private investment for a sustainable environment

1. Integrate environmental and climate goals into the policies of financial regulators and central banks, including standard criteria and rating systems for environmental and climate investments.
2. Embed ecological, biodiversity, land-use, and climate protection criteria into central-bank lending policies and institutional investment standards.
3. Embed environmental and climate impact disclosure requirements into financial regulations, government procurement rules, and public contracting processes.
4. Require large financial institutions – including banks and investment funds – to disclose the share of their portfolios that advance measurable environmental- and climate-beneficial outcomes.
5. Require public agencies and financial regulators to annually report on progress in aligning financial systems with national environmental and climate goals.
6. Establish national ecological- and climate-risk assessment guidelines to inform the lending, underwriting, and investment decisions of banks, insurers, and asset managers.
7. Encourage insurers to embed ecological- and climate-risk considerations into their underwriting and portfolio management through regulatory guidance, disclosure requirements, and targeted tax incentives.
8. Reform fiduciary standards for institutional investors, asset managers, and insurers to integrate long-term ecological and climate risks into prudent investment decision-making.
9. Reform financial regulations and credit-allocation rules to reduce regulatory risk-weights and short-term valuation biases that disadvantage long-term environmental and climate projects.
10. Reform accounting and valuation rules for financial institutions and asset managers to better reflect the long-term value and risk-reduction benefits of environmental and climate investments.
11. Reduce collateral barriers in prudential lending standards for environmental and climate projects through public risk-sharing mechanisms such as blended finance, partial public guarantees, and first-loss capital.
12. Provide long-term regulatory and policy certainty for environmental and climate objectives to reduce investment risk and lower the cost of capital for long-horizon projects.
13. Reform competition, procurement, and market-access rules to remove fossil-fuel–favoring barriers and ensure fair market entry for environmental and climate-beneficial businesses and technologies.
14. Create positive incentives (such as subsidies and tax breaks) and negative incentives (such as fines and tax penalties) to guide private enterprises and investment toward environmental- and climate-beneficial projects and services.
15. Apply environmental and climate harm-based pricing mechanisms—such as carbon pricing, emissions allowances, and natural-resource use fees—and recycle resulting revenues into investment funds supporting climate solutions, clean energy, and ecological restoration.

D.
Private Investment
for the Environment & Climate

private capital aligned with environmental responsibility

1. Integrate long-term ecological and climate responsibility into corporate missions, business models, and investment values.
2. Prioritize long-term ecological and climate sustainability over short-term profit in private asset-management and institutional investment strategies.
3. Integrate long-term ecological and climate risk-reduction into private investment strategies to protect future asset value and overall economic stability.
4. Support shareholder engagement and voting rights to advance environmental and climate responsibility in corporate governance and long-term business strategy.
5. Increase environment-aligned investment opportunities by expanding private-sector issuance of bonds and funds for long-term ecological and climate projects.
6. Encourage private, institutional, and philanthropic investors to finance environmental and climate projects – including clean-energy production, ecosystem restoration, climate-resilience measures, community green-spaces, and nature-recreation areas.
7. Encourage large investment firms to voluntarily disclose their climate-impact intentions, anticipated outcomes, and verified performance for all major investment products.
8. Promote independent environmental- and climate-impact evaluation and industry-developed reporting standards to ensure transparent, credible, and comparable investment information.
9. Foster business models that ensure equitable working conditions, fair wages, worker dividends, worker participation in business decisions, and responsible care for the local environment and the global climate.
10. Support fair trade, global supply chains, and transport systems that are climate responsible and ecologically sustainable.

E.
Local Public and Private Investment

financing local environmental projects and enterprises

1. Integrate local environmental and climate priorities into municipal fiscal planning and annual budgeting.
2. Advance local sustainable development and strengthen economic self-reliance through environmental stewardship, clean-energy expansion, sustainable resource use, soil-regenerative agriculture, sustainable forestry, nature-based industries, and long-term climate solutions.
3. Increase public funding for local ecosystem restoration and management – including watershed improvements, sustainable forestry, soil regeneration, biodiversity preservation, wildlife habitat conservation, and open-space reserves.
4. Condition access to public and community financing on compliance with environmental protection, biodiversity conservation, sustainable land-use, and climate-responsible energy use.
5. Provide public grants, subsidies, tax incentives, and concessional loans to local businesses and cooperatives that improve the natural environment, strengthen sustainable ecosystems, or advance climate mitigation, adaptation and resilience.
6. Establish community development banks with revolving funds to offer low-interest, no-collateral, easy-term loans for private enterprises and business cooperatives that improve the environment and provide ecological services, waste recycling, clean energy, energy efficiency, carbon sequestration, and carbon resilience.
7. Encourage private, institutional, and philanthropic capital to invest in community development banks that provide financial support and loans for local ecological services and climate projects.
8. Encourage local banks, credit unions, institutional funds, and private investors to directly finance and lend to local environmental and climate projects and businesses that improve ecosystems, maintain natural beauty, provide clean energy, sequester carbon, or improve climate resilience.
9. Build inter-city and regional blended-finance partnerships between local governments, private investment funds, and successful businesses to co-finance shared environmental and climate projects.