Financing a Sustainable Planet

Euromoney explores the ways in which developing countries are funding, building and maintaining critical infrastructure in harmony with the UN’s sustainability goals.

For generations humanity has taken more from the oceans than it puts back in. Today, man’s contribution to the seas is significant, but damaging. Overfishing has decimated entire species and what is left swims amid clouds of plastic waste so dense that it gathers in vast floating islands. Increased carbon emissions have increased sea temperatures, melting polar regions and cooking corals worldwide - by 2030 90% of coral reefs will be threatened with extinction.

In this opening episode of a 6-part series on Financing a sustainable planet, Euromoney explores where the balance should lie between profit and purpose. We examine whether sustainable finance can be used as a force to address the environmental and social challenges we face.Have we reached a tipping point where it is no longer acceptable to make any kind of profit without first considering its impact on the planet and the people who live on it?Sustainability is becoming a watch word, though there is some way to go before it becomes mainstream. What is the true value of these sustainable investments and are they going to move the needle?

What is the cost of a refugee crisis? Across the globe, each day, people are forced to flee their homes in the face of persecution, discrimination and insecurity. Families are split, livelihoods ruined and incomes and official identities lost. The human cost is incalculable. Yet for those determined to support the world’s refugees, it is essential to understand the scale of the task at hand if they are to source and allocate the resources needed to return people to dignity, stability and eventual prosperity.

The Danish energy company Ørsted is known to many by its previous name, Dong Energy. In 2017, the decision was made to rebrand the business after the Danish scientist Hans Christian Ørsted, and for a simple reason: Dansk Olie og Naturgas A/S no longer owned any assets in either oil or natural gas. The change was massive for a company that at one point ran coal, oil and natural gas power stations responsible for half of Denmark’s CO₂ emissions, not to mention those resulting from the oil and gas extracted by the company on its North Sea rigs. By 2018 though, 75% of Ørsted’s total energy generation came from renewable sources – by 2025 it will be 99%. Since 2006, coal consumption has been reduced by 81% and by 2025 the company is targeting a drop in the total carbon intensity of its energy generation of 98% – a tremendous turnaround.

Across the globe, cities are growing at an unprecedented rate and are now home to the majority of the world’s population. By 2050, it’s estimated that two out of three people worldwide will live in cities.They are engines of growth, but also fragile places, where the pressures of population density are keenly felt. Global emissions reached an all-time high in 2018, and the air above cities such as Delhi is growing ever more polluted. The global temperature rise caused by those emissions is also exacerbated in urban areas. City dwellers suffer the dangers of extreme heat, while droughts will become common and sustained as the mercury rises.Ageing infrastructure is also under pressure from growing population. Transit networks need updating to carry ever greater numbers. Buildings and infrastructure need to be updated and strengthened to withstand the impact of increasingly regular extreme weather events. This podcast will examine the state of cities worldwide and the challenges facing them. In Asia, we’ll look closer at the issue of ever-growing urban problems of crowding, transit and pollution. In North America, we’ll find out how Miami is facing an immediate threat from rising sea levels caused by climate change. And in Europe, we’ll investigate how Athens is trying to protect itself against the potentially fatal effects of extreme heat.

Humanity is confronting huge challenges. Climate change, population growth, technological innovations alongside growing inequality, geopolitical shifts, and more. What is the role of the financial industry in addressing these monumental issues? How can we best put capital to work in service of the planet? Can sustainable finance help us transition to a sustainable planet?