The Inquiry into the Design of a Sustainable Financial System has been initiated by UN Environment to advance policy options to improve the financial system’s effectiveness in mobilising capital towards a green and inclusive economy. Established in January 2014, the Inquiry has worked in 20 countries and produced a wide array of briefings and reports on sustainable finance.
In 2019, the Inquiry started to turn the theory of inquiring into the praxis of implementing, by working with six countries that are keen to advance ambitious national sustainable finance agendas. Four of these countries (China, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Nigeria) have pre-existing partial Roadmaps and two (India, Mexico) have pre-existing initiatives that will be scaled up. In Nigeria, for instance, the Inquiry is working towards reviewing the level of exposure to “green/brown lending” and providing strategic recommendations for the development of financial products. This work will directly assist the facilitation of green bond issuance from key sectors while also increasing finance flows to critical green infrastructure projects.
This report highlights the Inquiry’s work in 2019, including activities with countries that are incorporating sustainability into their financial architecture, and international collaboration with bodies such as the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) and the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action (FMCo).