WAIFC's latest report on sustainable finance finds that financial centers can play a significant role in the post-pandemic world's economic recovery.
FREMONT, CA: As part of its broader work on financial centers' role in helping the global economic recovery, the World Alliance for International Financial Centers (WAIFC) publishes a new report on sustainable finance in a post-pandemic globe. The publication is based on a survey of WAIFC members and research of the financial industry. The work's objective is to find what has been done to date in terms of sustainable finance in various financial centers and understand the effect that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on sustainable finance's trajectory. The output offers practical and impactful recommendations on how financial centers can play to help the economic recovery through the sustainability agenda.
Notably, the research found that, in 2020, de-prioritizing sustainable finance has, by and large, not happened. In fact, in some cases, there has been an acceleration. Many ask that is this time to focus on creating a more sustainable, resilient, and inclusive economy through sustainable finance?
WAIFC is releasing a call to action for the financial sector and decision-makers in financial centers through this report. Financial centers should take the upper hand on ensuring collaboration and cooperation across various sustainable finance ecosystems, both nationally and internationally. It also argues that more must be done to develop sustainable finance expertise, capacity, and knowledge and harness the digitalization of financial services so that sustainable finance is completely embedded in the future's financial industry.
The financial industry is at the core of how people respond to the global downturn and recovery. There are many key aspects to this, including accelerating sustainable investment by institutional investors and pushing all market players' engagement towards concrete actions. WAIFC has much work to do to attain the Paris Agreement's objectives, develop investment funds dedicated to the environment, and roll out new global action plans to progress social financing instruments. And a vital issue is to involve all market participants and, more specifically, to develop the dialog between investors and corporations to organize the necessary transition to the latest business models.
