OECD Work on Green Finance and Investment
OECD Environment Directorate
About the OECD
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an international organisation that works to shape policies that foster prosperity, equality, opportunity and wellbeing for all, drawing on over 60 years of experience and insights to better prepare the world of tomorrow.
Together with governments, policy makers and citizens, the OECD works on establishing evidence-based international standards and finding solutions to a range of social, economic and environmental challenges. With a systematic reach across almost all branches of government, the OECD provides a unique forum and knowledge hub for data and analysis, exchange of experiences, best-practice sharing, and advice on public policies and international standard-setting.
Mission of the Green Finance and Investment Team
Addressing climate change, as well as biodiversity and other environmental goals, will require a significant acceleration of investment and financing towards climate-friendly, nature-positive and sustainable pathways, and a shift away from harmful activities. Trillions of dollars are needed to help companies realign their business models through environmentally sustainable finance and investment. Transformational change, rather than incremental action, is needed to redirect finance and investment towards environmental goals. Aligning finance flows with climate, biodiversity and other environmental objectives requires public and private stakeholders to take into account the environmental impact of finance, avoid the risk of greenwashing and mobilise investment at greater scale and faster pace.
OECD work on green finance and investment complements and links to OECD work on climate action and on biodiversity. The former focuses on the environmental, economic, financial and social dimensions that are critical to the creation of low-emissions, climate-resilient development pathways. The latter focuses on the economic aspects, including on the effective and efficient design and implementation of policy instruments to promote biodiversity conservation and sustainable use.
The OECD Green Finance and Investment (GFI) team within the OECD Environment Directorate helps to catalyse and support the transition to a net-zero, resilient and environmentally sustainable economy by providing analysis and facilitating exchanges between key actors on effective and transformative policies, institutions and instruments for green finance and investment. The GFI team’s work prioritises transformative action to support investment mobilisation and the alignment of finance with environmental goals. The OECD’s convening power and its ability to promote the adoption of best practices by governments amplifies the impact of the team’s research, analysis and guidance.
Recent analytical work and publications
The OECD GFI team develops analytical work for policy makers and regulators to make informed decisions on key issues, such as transition finance for corporates, enabling policies for transition finance and corporate climate action, sustainable finance taxonomies, green infrastructure investment, climate-related due diligence for investors and finance for adaptation.
The team also engages with a variety of international and regional fora and platforms driving the green and sustainable finance agenda more broadly. These fora include the European Union’s International Platform on Sustainable Finance (IPSF), the International Transition Plan Network (ITPN), the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action, as well as G7 and G20 processes.
Transition finance and green and sustainable finance taxonomies
The urgency of climate and environmental action and the need for clarity on the environmental sustainability of investments and economic activities are driving momentum behind sustainable and green finance definitions, taxonomies and financial instruments. Alongside the upscaling of zero and near-zero carbon emitting activities, increasing attention is now also being paid to the role of finance in helping high-emitting activities to progressively decarbonise. The team’s work on these topics include:
Key Issues Note on Advancing Robust, Credible and Just Transition Plans for the 2024 G20 Sustainable Finance Working Group (SFWG) (2024)
Mechanisms to Prevent Carbon Lock-in in Transition Finance (2023)
OECD Guidance on Transition Finance (2022)
Transition Finance; Investigating the State of Play (2021)
Developing Sustainable Finance Definitions and Taxonomies (2020)
To reach net zero, annual investment in clean energy across buildings, transport and industry needs to triple, from around USD 600 billion in 2023 to roughly USD 1.8 trillion by 2030
Finance for adaptation and resilience
Scaling up finance and investment for climate resilience will be essential for addressing the growing threats posed by a changing climate. Investing in adaptation can be highly cost-effective, with potential economic returns of 2:1 to 10:1 across a range of key adaptation investments. However, there is still a gap between investment needs for adaptation and recorded finance flows. Policies and measures designed for a predictable climate are not necessarily suited for the rapid changes the world is now facing and a stronger enabling environment for investment is needed. The team’s contributions to these topics include:
Financing Climate Adaptation. Mobilising Investment at Scale - Policy Highlights (2025)
Scaling Finance and Investment for Climate Adaptation
- Input paper for the G20 Sustainable Finance Working Group (2025)
Climate Adaptation Investment Framework (2024)
G20/OECD Report on Approaches for Financing and Investing in Climate-resilient Infrastructure (2024)
Finance Chapter of Infrastructure for a ClimateResilient Future (2024)
Scaling Up Adaptation Finance in Developing Countries: Challenges and Opportunities for International Providers, Green Finance and Investment (2023)
Climate-resilient Finance and Investment (2022)
Mobilising institutional investors for green infrastructure
In this ‘‘decade of delivery’’, achieving our collective environmental goals, combating climate change, and building sustainable and resilient economic systems will require accelerating private investment in low-emission and climate-resilient infrastructure, especially from institutional investors. The yawning global infrastructure investment gap makes clear the need to mobilise private capital at scale. The team’s work on these topics include:
De-risking Institutional Investment in Green Infrastructure – 2021 Progress Update (2021).
Green Infrastructure in the Decade for DeliveryAssessing Institutional Investment (2020).
Progress Update on Approaches to Mobilising Institutional Investment for Sustainable Infrastructure (2018).
Mobilising Bond Markets for a Low-Carbon Transition (2017).
Green Investment Banks - Scaling up Private Investment in Low-carbon, Climate-resilient Infrastructure (2016).
Mapping Channels to Mobilise Institutional Investment in Sustainable Energy (2015).
Strengthening domestic enabling policies and coordination for green finance and investment
Improving domestic enabling conditions and developing bankable project pipelines are key to attract finance and investment for green infrastructure. The team’s work in this area includes:
Supporting Women’s Empowerment through Green Policies and Finance (2022).
Overcoming Barriers to International Investment in Clean Energy (2015). 3 4
As of February 2020, the stock of green infrastructure investment by pension funds and insurance companies through unlisted funds and direct investments amounted to
USD 450 billion in total.
This represented only 4.1 % of the then existing investable assets under management under existing regulatory limits.
Developing Robust Project Pipelines for Low-Carbon Infrastructure (2018).
Power Struggle: Decarbonising the Electricity Sector (2018).
State-Owned Enterprises and the Low-Carbon Transition (2018).
The Empirics of Enabling Investment and Innovation in Renewable Energy (2017).
OECD Clean Energy Investment Policy Review of Jordan (2016).
Policy Guidance for Investment in Clean Energy Infrastructure (2015).
Forthcoming publications and events
Climate Adaptation Investment Framework Country Studies:
• Ireland
• Zambia (integrated with the Investment Policy Review)
• Emerging market case study
Enabling Policies for Transition Finance and Corporate
Climate Transitions in Emissions-Intensive Sectors
13th OECD Forum on Green Finance and Investment, 7-8 October 2026
Workshop on Financing Sustainable Chemistry, June 2026
Conferences and events
The GFI team organises a wide range of conferences, workshops and seminars, providing a platform for inclusive dialogue and exchange among policy makers, investors, corporates, researchers, academia and civil society representatives.
OECD Forum on Green Finance and Investment
The OECD Forum on Green Finance and Investment is the OECD’s flagship event on green and sustainable finance. The Forum brings together influential global actors to discuss key policy issues and solutions to advance the green and sustainable finance agenda. The GFI team organises the annual Forum, bringing together relevant OECD themes and work on green and sustainable finance, in co-ordination with various OECD directorates.
The 12th edition of the OECD Forum on Green Finance and Investment was held from 7-8 October 2025, in person at the OECD Headquarters (La Muette Conference centre) and virtually, with online streaming. It focused on the theme ‘Investing in sustainability, investing in economic resilience.’ The Forum convened around 13 sessions and welcomed over 80 high-level speakers, as well as more than 1,550 participants (both in person and virtually) from over 120 countries.
Browse the online Forum platform to watch the session replays, explore the key resources, and access the Forum summary.
Save the date for the 13th edition, which is expected to take place on 7 and 8 October 2026 (the same October dates as in 2025). More information on past and upcoming events.
Other recent events
Annual OECD Forum on Green Finance and Investment (2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021).
Joint OECD-GX Acceleration Agency (GXA) Stakeholder Workshop on Transition Finance and Corporate Climate Action (2025, held under Chatham House rule)
COP30 session on Good practices in scaling adaptation investment (2025) and COP29 session on Accelerating investment in adaptation: Launching the OECD’s Climate Adaptation Investment Framework (2024.)
COP28 Seminar on Unlocking capital for net zero in Asia and beyond: Challenges and solutions on transition finance (2023) and COP27 Session on How can sustainable and transition finance support the journey to net zero in Asia? (2022).
Opportunities for collaboration and sponsorships
The OECD GFI team offers a rich variety of opportunities for collaboration.
Research collaborations and partnerships
The team welcomes opportunities to collaborate on research pieces on topics related to sustainable, green and transition finance, as well as finance for adaptation. Research collaborations give researchers and practitioners the opportunity to present relevant findings to OECD experts and potentially feed them into OECD analysis and policy advice. Research partners could co-develop and conduct robust and policy-relevant research pieces jointly with OECD, including for instance co-publishing articles, working papers and reports.
Engagement in workshops and events
The team regularly engages with key stakeholders across governments, the financial and corporate sectors, international organisations, academia and civil society, and welcomes opportunities to co-organise workshops and events on a wide range of topics related to green finance and investment.
Sponsorships
Sponsors can include national governments, cities and regions, private industry, philanthropies, funds, foundations, development banks and other organisations seeking to support the scale-up of private finance for the low-carbon transition and other environmental objectives, and to promoting effective global dialogue and solutions for the lowcarbon transition and sustainable development.
Meet the Green Finance and Investment Team
Robert YOUNGMAN, Team Leader and Senior Policy Analyst robert.youngman@oecd.org
Michael MULLAN, Economist michael.mullan@oecd.org
Yuji NAKAHAMA, Policy Analyst
Emilie BERGER, Policy Analyst
Felicitas MURAT, Junior Policy Analyst
Konstantin BLONDEAU, Junior Policy Analyst
Elvira BERRUETA-IMAZ, Assistant
For more information:
website GFI@oecd.org
@OECD_ENV
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© OECD, January 2026