UNEP Financial Inquiry - Pathways to Scale

The UNEP Financial Inquiry argues that while global financial assets are abundant, investment flows are misaligned with sustainable development due to systemic failures and ineffective pricing. It identifies five key financial areas for alignment—banking, bonds, institutional investment, central banks, and systemic risk assessment—and proposes a performance framework based on effectiveness, efficiency, and resilience to measure the scaling of sustainable finance.

• Global investment flows are currently misaligned with long-term sustainable development because of systemic failures in the financial system and ineffective pricing, despite the existence of abundant financial assets.
• There are significant opportunities to align financial policies and standards with sustainable development across five major asset pools and risk areas: banking (US$139 trillion), bond markets (US$100 trillion), institutional investment (US$93 trillion), central bank balance sheets (US$24 trillion), and long-term environmental risk assessment.
• Scaling sustainable finance requires a focus on purpose, asset pools, alignment tools, and pathways for change, measured by a new performance framework evaluating effectiveness in the real economy, mediation efficiency, and systemic resilience.

APA

UNEP (2015). UNEP Financial Inquiry - Pathways to Scale. Green Economy Coalition. https://www.greeneconomycoalition.org/news-and-resources/summary-unep-financial-inquiry-pathways-scale-3rd-report

Chicago

UNEP. UNEP Financial Inquiry - Pathways to Scale. Green Economy Coalition, 2015. https://www.greeneconomycoalition.org/news-and-resources/summary-unep-financial-inquiry-pathways-scale-3rd-report.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=UNEP |title=UNEP Financial Inquiry - Pathways to Scale |publisher=Green Economy Coalition |date=16 March 2015 |url=https://www.greeneconomycoalition.org/news-and-resources/summary-unep-financial-inquiry-pathways-scale-3rd-report |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{unep2015unep, author = {UNEP}, title = {{UNEP Financial Inquiry - Pathways to Scale}}, institution = {Green Economy Coalition}, year = {2015}, month = mar, url = {https://www.greeneconomycoalition.org/news-and-resources/summary-unep-financial-inquiry-pathways-scale-3rd-report}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }