REVIEWING THE SUSTAINABLE FINANCE LANDSCAPE

The document outlines a framework for sustainable finance based on five transaction elements: financier, principal, expenditure, agreement (source of capital), and agreement (use of capital). It identifies three primary barriers to capital flow—risk/return, information, and scale—and suggests that these can be addressed through both policy and non-policy strategies. Applying this framework to case studies, the report finds that residential solar in the U.S. is primarily hindered by consumer-side barriers and lack of standardization, whereas electric vehicle (EV) adoption is stymied by limited financier demand for infrastructure-appropriate financial instruments.

• Sustainable finance transactions are composed of five core elements: a principal (the entity deciding to finance), a financier (the source of capital), an expenditure (the sustainability-related investment), an agreement governing the source of capital, and an agreement governing the use of capital.
• Barriers to the flow of capital in sustainable finance are categorized into three types: risk/return (insufficient return for perceived risk), information (lack of awareness or understanding of economic value), and scale (opportunities too small to attract necessary focus).
• Strategies to overcome financial barriers can be implemented via policy approaches, which require government action such as laws or regulations, or non-policy, market-based approaches.
• In the U.S. residential solar market, the primary constraints are located at the expenditure and agreement (use of capital) stages rather than the financier stage, suggesting that the main opportunity is to simplify the acquisition process and increase consumer awareness.
• The electric vehicle (EV) market faces a different set of constraints, where a lack of financier demand for instruments suited for electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) has hindered the development of charging infrastructure and increased consumer range anxiety.

APA

Probst, C., & Campbell, M. (2015). REVIEWING THE SUSTAINABLE FINANCE LANDSCAPE. RMI. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_RMISustainableFinance-InsightBrief.pdf

Chicago

Probst, Curtis, and Martha Campbell. REVIEWING THE SUSTAINABLE FINANCE LANDSCAPE. RMI, 2015. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_RMISustainableFinance-InsightBrief.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Probst |first1=Curtis |last2=Campbell |first2=Martha |title=REVIEWING THE SUSTAINABLE FINANCE LANDSCAPE |publisher=RMI |date=October 2015 |url=https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_RMISustainableFinance-InsightBrief.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{probst2015reviewing, author = {Probst, Curtis and Campbell, Martha}, title = {{REVIEWING THE SUSTAINABLE FINANCE LANDSCAPE}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2015}, month = oct, url = {https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_RMISustainableFinance-InsightBrief.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }