The Many Shades of Green Finance

At the start of 2026, this opinion steps back to look at the findings. The choice of the six was simply to cross continents in search of variability: the climate and topographic challenges lead to different problems and solutions, and the financial resources in these IFCs vary considerably. 

The goal of the World Alliance is to share information from one financial center to another in ways visible to the public. There is much in common when it comes to green finance, and, perhaps more usefully, variations do stand out – these might give other IFCs ideas for new targets and resources. 

Green finance in the member jurisdictions studied included the Astana International Financial Center, the Busan Finance Center, the Istanbul Financial Center, Rwanda Finance, the Hong Kong Financial Services Development Council, and Future Finance Poland. For 2026, the worldwide search for best practices among our members will continue.

Broad Points in Common

Moving away from carbon-based energy these past decades has been something like the analogy of “building an airplane while flying it.”  Improvisations and course corrections have marked this work: 

• National governments set specific carbon reduction goals for their countries on a multiannual basis, usually based on commitments made during the COP process – higher in good economic times, or backsliding when times are less favorable.
• Central banks and financial services oversight bodies encourage private sector actors to step forward with new investment products. Tax and interest-rate incentives are deployed to give clients reasons to prefer the green offer- and so they go down the newly more attractive, alternate direction that their projects take. Incentives work.
• Technologies have certainly advanced, and economies are adapting, but to figure out where anybody is on this path has required commonly agreed definitions and metrics. Consensus on how to organize this work at a countrywide scale depends critically on those definitions and metrics. The engineers have been solving practical problems more quickly than the policy-makers have written their texts. 
• The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) has been aggregating and analyzing the achievements of years of earlier analytical work, and provides essential guidance to companies and governments on how to measure and present these aspects of business information. The ISSB operates within the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) framework, the accounting standard-setter that mandates or permits IFRS in 140+ countries.   
• In 2025, how to present coherently and in standardized fashion the values of biodiversity, ecosystems, and ecosystem services was the subject of renewed attention. The ISSB has a task force dedicated to nature-related disclosures. As the world advances on this path, information requirements are broadening; the complexity of decarbonization means there is more to consider.
• Some years back, many global banks pledged to use the power of their balance sheets to facilitate the transition. With the withdrawal of US banks from the Net Zero Banking Alliance, global guidance loosened.
• The United Nations Environment Program Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) has been developing information on the use of AI to generate more useful data on nature-related climate problems.
• Climate and topography matter greatly. Soil quality is felt very differently by citizens in a densely populated country like Rwanda as compared to Kazakhstan, but they might have very similar questions on water management. The complexity and duration of a project will be quite different from one aspect of the green transition to another, as will the payback period and profitability.

National Green Finance Themes

• For the green environment in which Future Finance Poland navigates, the framework is largely set by the European Union Commission, with the Polish government establishing the specific plans. The national target for renewables is 56% of energy production by 2030. Windfarms will be built along the long Baltic Sea coast, and solar panel farms will be constructed on the largely flat countryside.   Green hydrogen generation and its related transportation system is being built with government funding, and more nuclear energy will be in the mix. The national State Development Fund has made itself an anchor investor in the green bond market; new market segments are hard to launch and price, and government involvement gives quite a boost.
• The Hong Kong Financial Services Development Council might be the jurisdiction where the sea and land have been more reworked to suit the needs of man than elsewhere, creating a distinct relationship to the environment and a deep knowledge of “home.” The SAR’s goal is carbon neutrality by 2050, and the government has tabled USD 31 bn for climate risk mitigation and adaptation between 2020 and 2035.  Regulators have been particularly firm on ESG disclosures, and the listing requirements place significant responsibility on boards of directors for their stewardship. The authorities have mandated ESG disclosure formats to facilitate cross-company comparisons.  Employees and board directors have had to complete mandatory ISSB training. The Hong Kong SAR government has led by example in multicurrency green bond issuance, with outstanding capital nearing USD 30 bn.
• The coordination by the Istanbul Financial Center in this area might best be distinguished by its broad orchestration and ability to tap into multilateral funding sources. The World Bank has provided a loan to the Industrial Development Bank of Türkiye, which, in turn, is lent onward to private companies. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank funds public-sector projects. This commitment includes funding the Development Bank, with a second tranche made available to VakifBank for onward lending to SMEs. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has been another multilateral source, through its Green Economy Financing Facility. The Turks have also tapped into the Climate Investment Fund, the only climate fund working exclusively with multiple multilateral agencies, the ADB, AfDB, EBRD, IDB, IFC, and World Bank. Finally, it was in the Turkish texts that the term “blue finance” was most widely used, as a distinction for a very different approach to the questions arising in seas, lakes, and rivers.
• The Astana International Finance Center has a dedicated Green Finance Center, which has become a regional promotional hub and the first point of contact for all manner of questions. The Kazakhs have encountered the global challenge of pricing green products relative to other financial instruments. The response has been to emphasize the national taxonomy, the definitions that enable actors to drive forward on a common information base. The Kazakh green taxonomy is an adaptation for the market based on global best practices.
• Rwanda, home of the Kigali International Financial Center, established a national green fund in 2012, giving it now a significant track record on delivery. It can boast 46 projects supported, which created 176 k jobs as of the end of 2024. 88 k households have access to off-grid clean energy, 46 k hectares of forest land have been protected, 24 k hectares of land have been secured against erosion, and 126 k tons of carbon dioxide were not generated. At the national level, the budget now has tagging for climate effects, raising awareness for planners and legislators as they consider the public spending.  Rwanda’s focus has been on finding nature-based solutions, which always work best and are usually the cheapest. 

Further for the World Alliance

The purpose of these opinions is to highlight the variety of contexts and responses worldwide. There is no right or best, but there is a great deal of work to accomplish.

Technology, economics, and politics evolve constantly and rapidly.  In 2026, the newsletter's opinion page will feature snapshots of green initiatives from many other World Alliance member jurisdictions.