Many developing nations have begun to view green financing as integral to their economic, social, and environmental development, according to a report issued Monday by the United Nations Environment Program. “In seeing green finance as part of their development agenda, non-G20 developing countries are actively establishing approaches that: (a) draw from international best practice, (b) build on domestic conditions and history of financing, and (c) use [financial technology] developments and emerging business models to develop new approaches,” the report explains.
The report notes some specific examples of green finance in developing nations, such as environmental and social risk management guidelines under development by the State Bank of Vietnam, and the development of a voluntary national framework of sustainable finance principles by the Mongolian Bankers Association.
“Green finance is burgeoning; it has reached the point of spontaneous combustion,” Nuru Mugambi, director of communications for the Kenya Bankers Association, said in a press release. “But it needs to be aligned. It needs to go beyond the leadership of a few champions and be coordinated across regional trading blocks.”
