Euromoney has spoken to 20 sustainable finance experts about what is needed to bring about real progress. The last of our six recommendations is for efforts to be made to incentivize green finance.

What needs to happen for sustainability to be adopted by mainstream finance and move beyond the realm of pledges, panels and press releases? The first of our six recommendations is for banks to sign up to the Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB).

Leading bankers in sustainable finance fear that, despite the advances and the rhetoric, the industry is not moving quickly enough. Euromoney asked 20 regional and global heads of sustainable finance for their views: what the experts think might surprise you.

The Italian fashion house’s sustainability linked loan, arranged by Crédit Agricole, builds the catwalk for other retailers to follow suit.

New proposals by the SEC have shaken the investor community, threatening the ability of smaller shareholders to file resolutions and potentially preventing ESG issues from being heard.

$140 million green bond funding used to build… a petrochemical refinery.

A World Bank meeting session on tackling biodiversity and climate change failed to find its audience.

Critics says IFC's standards lack rigour of World Bank’s 2018 Environmental and Social Framework; Bank accepts it has made many mistakes, caused environmental and social damage in the Amazon.

Tiny Bhutan has a claim to fame as the first and only country that can claim to be not only carbon neutral but dramatically carbon negative. Conservation is wrapped in with the national ideal of ‘gross national happiness’, a pillar of the country’s constitution and fundamental to national planning.

Using a model of up-front financing for large one-off projects, project finance for permanence may be the mechanism that can help reach the goal of 50% of the planet’s natural areas being protected in perpetuity.

The Seychelles was the first country to issue a debt-for-nature swap to protect its marine environment; it was also the first to issue a blue bond, raising capital to finance sustainable marine and ocean-related projects. But can it overcome the teething problems and provide a model other island nations can follow?

The Latin American nation has gone all-out to rebuild its natural environment over the last three decades, with great results – now it needs the rest of the world to pay attention.

Societe Generale has accelerated its transition and is using important mandates to convince its internal and external audiences alike.

The bank’s chief executive has led from the front to create an institution that is more diverse and better reflects the society in which it works.

The bank’s 10-year ScotiaRise programme has gone from strength to strength, reaching out to indigenous communities and aligning with its truth and reconciliation committee’s work.

The bank is leveraging all its resources to reach six million individuals by 2025. It is well on its way.

With a chief executive pushing sustainable finance from the very top, HSBC is leading from the front in the global banking industry’s response to the climate emergency.

It is not enough to have the data, banks also need to bring intelligence and financial analysis to bear in sustainable finance to keep progressing.