The Global Research Alliance For Sustainable Finance and Investment (GRASFI) helds its 4th Conference organised by the International Institute of Green Finance (IIGF) of the Central University of Finance and Economics (CUFE).

Sustainable finance has become one of the most vibrant topics in global economics, politics, global, and of course finance. While sustainable finance is still in its infancy, sustainability-related challenges are mounting: COVID will push 47 million more women and girls below the poverty line, according to the UNDP; global greenhouse gas emissions are still rising, and biodiversity loss is all but reversed.

Globally, a consensus is emerging that these challenges need to be tackled in order to avoid a “climate catastrophe”, mass migration, social conflicts or even starvation and collapse of ecosystems. This leads to many questions that the academic community needs to answer in cooperation with the financial community, the business community, global political leaders and regulators. These questions range from the assessment of financial risks to global reporting and ESG standards of various financial instruments, such as bonds, equity, insurance; they range from regulatory and voluntary measures in sustainable finance, such as global carbon markets and sustainable finance taxonomies to stakeholder activism through stewardship and corporate governance. The questions for sustainable finance also encompass how to distribute the responsibilities of a sustainable post-COVID recovery and green transition between the more and the less developed countries.

Academic research into sustainable finance and investment plays a crucial role to provide evidence-based theory and practice to guide global cooperation efforts in an effective direction. This research must come from a diverse range of approaches and fields in order to constructively address what are extremely complicated and multi-disciplinary problems in the sustainability and finance fields.