With adoption of two major international policies namely the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change private finance needs to be mobilised and directed towards realising critical sustainability solutions.  If we are to get close to achieving the outcomes envisioned under these two policies trillions of dollars will need to be deployed much of which will have to come from the world’s financial and capital markets.  

To build a greener, cleaner more inclusive global economy we need a more sustainable financial system and some transformative change to the one that dominates the world today.  Although we are still far from creating a global financial system that is fit for purpose, there is growing momentum in this area and in November 2017 the World Bank released a report the Roadmap for a Sustainable Financial System.  It proposes an integrated approach for all financial sector stakeholders to bring policy cohesiveness across ministries, central banks, financial regulators; and private financial sector participants to focus efforts.