Sustainable Finance For Asia And The Pacific

The new sustainable development agenda is expected to touch every country, person, and activity. Therefore, shouldn't every dollar count toward achieving it? Asia and the Pacific, home to more than half of humanity, has the money to improve the lives of all its people, and protect the planet in fair and durable ways. However, funds are in many hands, invested elsewhere, or used for various purposes. It is time to move beyond this fragmentation and align finance behind sustainable development, recognizing that while capital will be key, so will the capacity to apply and attract it effectively. This report explores some of the ways forward. It highlights not just the need to inject more money into investments that contribute to sustainable development, but also the need to attract funds toward them---to finance human needs, infrastructure, and cross-border public goods. The report spans public and private options, in their distinct roles and in combination. An eight-point agenda suggests how key constituents can do their parts. Working together, they can make money work for development where benefits are not only more equitably shared, but will last for generations to come.

The transition to a sustainable future in the Asia-Pacific region has global economic significance. Despite driving global growth in recent years, the region's heavy coal reliance led to significant greenhouse gas emissions. Meeting climate mitigation and adaptation needs in emerging and developing Asia requires investment of at least $1.1 trillion annually. Actual investment falls short by about $800 billion. Asia-Pacific’s environmental performance has also hampered its ability to tap into private flows from the fast-growing ESG asset class, keeping the cost of issuing sustainable debt instruments relatively high compared to other regions. This paper provides an overview of the climate finance ecosystem in countries in the Asia-Pacific region and presents strategies to mobilize climate finance for the region’s transition to a sustainable future. The paper identifies challenges, including gaps in the climate information architecture, policy conflicts, global complexities, and emphasizes the need for coordinated action involving governments, central banks, financial supervisors, the IMF, and other multilateral institutions. In particular, • Governments need to establish a well-defined climate strategy with strong institutional oversight and coordination to strengthen the framework on data, taxonomies, and disclosures. Fossil fuel subsidies should be phased out and carbon pricing schemes expanded to create fiscal space for sustainable investments. Strengthening macroeconomic management is essential to attract private capital. • Financial supervisors and central banks should coordinate across jurisdictions to promote global, interoperable disclosure standards, enhance climate risk analysis and reporting, and incorporate climate-related financial risks into prudential frameworks. Developing climate labels for sustainable investment funds and shifting the focus of ESG scores to better capture sustainability and climate impact would foster trust in the evaluations. The IMF can drive climate action by integrating discussions in surveillance activities and strengthening data and statistics—including through capacity building and peer learning—to develop common standards around climate risk measurement and analysis. The Resilience and Sustainability Trust could contribute to reducing financing gaps through its catalytic and reform supporting functions, while multilateral development banks could scale up grant financing and concessional lending, and where appropriate adopt risk-mitigating mechanisms to expand lending capacity. Cooperation among multilateral institutions is essential to align efforts and resources to achieve a balanced allocation between mitigation and adaptation lending.

Governments throughout the Asia-Pacific region recognize the catalyzing role of infrastructure investment for sustainable growth. Yet, they are faced with the problem of financing new infrastructure. This book provides the latest evidence on the impact of infrastructure investment on economic and social indicators. Presenting several country studies, the book explains how infrastructure investment can increase output, taxes, trade, and firm productivity. Based on this evidence, the book proposes innovative modes of infrastructure financing. Written by leading international experts in economic analysis of infrastructure, the book is an invaluable source for policy makers to better design infrastructure projects.

Asia and the Pacific continues to embrace financial technology advances that are reshaping the traditional banking and financial services industry. This is being done through the digitalization, decentralization, and disintermediation of economic transactions. This report tracks the progress of financial innovation in the region, and discusses its implications for financial inclusion and stability as well as its challenges. It also identifies key policy issues for central banks, financial regulators, and international financial institutions.

The development of quality, sustainable, and resilient infrastructure is an important goal of the 2030 Agenda. However, investment in infrastructure in most countries in Asia and the Pacific is insufficient. Developing countries in the region have substantial investment needs in transport, ICT, water and sanitation and energy to attain the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This publication highlights the infrastructure financing landscape and addresses how developing countries in the region can increase infrastructure investment by focusing on the challenges they face along topical areas. Special attention is made to improve public sector efficiency and catalyze private sector involvement to achieve the SDGs.

This report explores the benefits of Asia and the Pacific's coral reefs and considers how nature-positive investments can finance their protection and restoration.

This handbook deals with various financial instruments, policies, and strategies in a policy-oriented approach for financing green energy projects. Recently, global investment in renewables and energy efficiency has declined, and there is a risk that it will slow further, Clearly, fossil fuels still dominate energy investments. This trend could threaten the expansion of green energy needed to meet energy security, climate, and clean-air goals. Several developed and developing economies are still following pro-coal energy policies. The extra CO2 generated from new coal-fired power plants could more than eliminate any reductions in emissions made by other nations. Finance is the engine of development of infrastructural projects, including energy projects. By providing several thematic and country chapters, this handbook explains that if we plan to achieve sustainable development goals, we need to create opportunities for new green projects and scale up the financing of investments that furnish environmental benefits. New financial instruments and policies such as green bonds, green banks, carbon market instruments, fiscal policy, green central banking, fintech, and community-based green funds are among the chief components that make up green finance. Naoyuki Yoshino is Dean, Asian Development Bank Institute and Professor Emeritus, Keio University. Jeffery Sachs is Director, Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University. Wing Thye Woo is Professor of Economics, U.C. Davis. Farhad Taghizadeh-Hesary is Assistant Professor, Waseda University.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has highlighted food security issues and nutrition gaps in Asia and the Pacific, where various risks and fragilities have continually affected the food and agriculture sector. There is a clear need to integrate sustainable management of natural resources, nutritional considerations, and the economic dimensions of food supply chains to enhance resilience and mitigate climate change. This publication explores how innovative financing and transformative knowledge solutions can help address the financing gaps and other challenges of food systems in the region.