Rewiring Finance

To deliver a transition to a more sustainable economy, we need to transform the way markets operate. Finance has a key role to play in enabling and supporting that change. 

Business as usual today means that businesses don’t have to pay for the environmental and social problems they cause and too many focus on short-term gains at the expense of longer-term profitability.

In this environment, more sustainable businesses struggle to compete. Until governments, companies, and investors work together to create new rules, norms and structures, we won't have a fair system that rewards sustainable business practices.

Working with the financial system – including banks, investors, insurers and regulators – is critical. But despite decades of efforts to align finance with more sustainable outcomes, the current financial system is still not set up or incentivised to support this transition.

While there is enough money in the system to address the scale of nature loss and the climate crisis, it is not flowing towards the solutions needed with the speed and scale required. The finance system needs to be able to respond to the risks and opportunities presented by the climate and nature crisis, helping price these challenges into the economy and shifting financial flows to where they are needed. 

This transition is not only pivotal for society, but can also be a driver of economic growth. The opportunities in the new green economy are worth up to $10.3 trillion USD. The risks of misjudging the pace of change threaten the global financial stability. The finance system needs to support the transition, because the alternative is increasing volatility and instability in global capital markets.   

Our Rewiring Finance campaign aims to address the shifts needed to deliver transformation towards a sustainable economy and empower finance leaders working to drive change in policies, products and market sentiment to achieve this. Working together, we want to rewrite market incentives, financial structures, rules and operating models.

CISL’s work to rewire finance is led through its groundbreaking Centre for Sustainable Finance (CSF).

Working through convening, capacity-building and thought leadership, the centre hosts projects designed to accelerate the rewiring of the global financial system so it can effectively support the transition to a sustainable economy.

CSF's work seeks to engage organisations around the world and build the leadership necessary to change market and policy structures, to nurture new mindsets and changed market sentiment and to embed sustainability into core financial structures and decision making. A core part of the centre’s work involves bringing private financial institutions such as banks, insurers and investors together into powerful groups and collaborations that can explore the landscape and identify effective common strategies for change.

Even as the landscape for action on finance is becoming more volatile and polarised, CISL’s Centre for Sustainable Finance offers a safe space for accessing academic insight and challenge, building cross-sectoral collaboration and creating new strategies for change and impact. If you'd like to learn more about how you can work with us, please get in touch.

CISL Africa programme

A core part of CISL’s convening in African countries is engaging to unlock greater financial flows for underserved African economies.

Policy collaborations

Through its Corporate Leaders Groups and other collaborations, CISL shapes the business-policy dialogue in key markets, particularly the UK and Europe.

Learn more about CISL’s finance collaborations and how to join:

CSF membership

Private finance institutions who want to engage in individual projects can become an affiliate of CISL Centre for Sustainable Finance.

Banking Environment Initiative

Some of the world’s largest banks working to lead their industry in directing capital towards environmentally and socially sustainable economic development.

ClimateWise

Brings together the insurance industry into a member network which integrates sustainable leadership with world-leading research capability to address the impacts of climate change, enabling the transition of the insurance industry through a defined set of Principles aligned to disclosure requirements.

Investment Leaders Group

Leading investment managers and asset owners with over $9  trillion USD under management and advice working to help shift the investment chain towards responsible, long-term value creation.

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