Global agriculture urgently needs transition: Delaying transition to sustainable agricultural practices would have high costs, with current practices ...

EV and hybrid vehicle sales have skyrocketed, rising more than eightfold over the past five years. While market growth has been slower in recent months, we expect this expansion to continue at a more gradual pace in 2024.

Agriculture is is around 4% of the global economy, with over half of global production coming from China, India, and the U.S. Given the growing policy focus on this vital sector, we are launching a new IIF Sustainable Agriculture Working Group.

AI’s ability to source and process mass data is a game-changer for sustainability impact analysis, compliance, and innovation. The AI toolkit can help improve metrics and reduce the cost of compliance, e.g. in ESG disclosure and risk management.

Achieving a net-zero global economy by 2050 will require significant financial investment in emerging markets and developing countries—which by 2050 will represent a much larger portion of the global economy and population than today.

Transitioning towards a sustainable agricultural system is crucial to address biodiversity loss and nature-related risks on the path to a net-zero economy. This shift will be quite challenging—perhaps even more so than the clean energy transition—given that over 330 million people across 78 countries are currently facing an acute level of food insecurity.

Nature and biodiversity are emerging as critical areas of market focus, attracting increasing attention from corporates, financial institutions, and policymakers.

Early 2024 saw a sharp surge in ESG fund flows, driven by a rally in tech shares (which are heavily weighted in ESG indices given their high ESG scores). In February, inflows to ESG fixed income funds reached their highest in over a year. Looking ahead, a synchronized series of rate cuts by major central banks could have a positive impact on ESG fund flows, particularly in the second half of 2024.

Beyond carbon emissions, addressing methane emissions is vital for achieving a net-zero economy by 2050. Despite increasing pledges to reduce methane emissions, these efforts have been limited in scope due to the wide range of emission sources (making standardized solutions difficult) and the high cost of financing emissions reductions.

Our New York Climate Week events last week—which included an IIF Transition Finance Workshop, an IIF/TCW Blended Finance Roundtable, and the launch of the IIF Global Debt Monitor—focused on the changing landscape for net-zero transition planning and addressing the challenges of mobilizing capital for climate action.