Today, the richest 10% of the global population earn more than half of the world’s income and hold three quarters of the world’s wealth. At the same time, we are in the midst of the largest cost of living crisis in a generation and hundreds of millions of people around the world are fighting for their basic needs to be met.
Negative impacts on people presents risks to businesses and financial institutions. They can also accumulate and in turn generate system-level risks that undermine social stability, the short-, medium-, and long-term performance of the economy, the stability of financial systems, and returns from diversified investment portfolios.
Businesses and financial institutions each have a critical role to play in mitigating system-level risks and reaping these opportunities by improving outcomes for all people and reducing the accumulation of inequalities. The private sector’s collective response to climate change and nature loss has demonstrated its ability to coordinate to tackle global system-wide risks.
Yet today there is a lack of clarity on how their actions impact people and contribute to inequalities, how these impacts and inequalities present entity-level and system-level risks to business and finance, and how addressing them can open new opportunities.
This session explores investor information needs, effective system stewardship, the connection between individual company impacts and portfolio performance, and the role of disclosures, where TISFD aims to enhance decision-useful information.
Regenerative practices can reduce the environmental impact of our global food system, but financing this transition at scale is still a major challenge. Our joint session at Building Bridges 2025, will cover the current financing bottlenecks for companies and growers, explore solutions, and share successful case studies.
There is clear evidence that physical impacts are damaging global value chains and this trend is likely to worsen. However, companies and investors have poor visibility on physical risks which gives rise to inefficient pricing and inadequate risk management. This has significant consequences for insurers, investors and companies.
This session will explore what is needed for effective risk transfer and risk prevention to support competitive advantage and value creation for all market participants.
The session spotlights innovative finance models (blended and beyond) for regenerative agriculture and related market infrastructure – from digital trade platforms to decentralized hubs. Based on real-world cases and collaborations across Europe and globally, the panel highlights infrastructure required to scale regenerative systems, investable opportunities, and data-driven risk mitigation. Leading stakeholders from finance, policy, corporates and local actors will share their insights.
As traditional development financing evolves, National Development Banks (NDBs) are becoming pivotal in unlocking funding for the SDGs. Building on its partnership with the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN), SHF together with DBN, UNCDF, AFD, and other partners will showcase how collaboration with NDBs can facilitate local currency financing, reduce exchange rate risks, and enhance country ownership, ultimately driving transformative impact for people, economies, and the environment.
The event will tackle the many angles that nature finance can take – from shareholder engagement, financing opportunities locally (in Switzerland), and investing opportunities globally to risk mitigation and understanding of investors’ value-chain.
Institutional investors increasingly seek climate-aligned debt financing opportunities in emerging markets, yet systemic barriers, from FX volatility to fragmented deal flow, prevent capital inflows. This session explores how de-risking tools, blended finance structures, and Article 6 carbon credit monetization can unlock scalable SDG investment pathways and catalyze private capital injection into high-impact, frontier market projects.
The ILF C is reuniting the relevant stakeholders involved in Impact-Linked Finance (ILF): Public and private donors/outcome funders, Impact (first) investors, development finance institutions, social and impact enterprises and ILF service providers. Scaling up means dissemination of knowledge, advocacy for outcome funding and setting standards. The event will provide an update on latest developments and inspire stakeholders for creative, joint advocacy.
Achieving real-world impact is the ultimate goal of sustainble finance. As finance remains a strong lever towards decarbonization, transition finance offers a pathway to direct capital toward scalable solutions that reduce emissions and transform the real economy. This workshop brings together leaders from finance, policy, and civil society to explore how to make transition finance effective. Through focused roundtable discussions, participants will explore concrete investment solutions mainstreaming impact investing, driving real-economy impact through stewardship and directing capital to where it’s needed most.
The old sustainability playbook is dead. Subsidies are vanishing, skeptical voices are loud, geopolitical chaos is the new normal.
In this new reality, the winners aren’t waiting for government support or perfect policies. Smart organizations are turning crisis into opportunity. They’re building solutions and technologies that integrate with nature, empower local communities, and deliver measurable ROI. Yet the paradox remains: as we demand radical transparency, we risk slowing down the very solutions we need. Without better tools to track impact and prove hard returns, investment in nature will never scale.
Going forward it isn’t about ticking regulatory boxes. It’s about hard numbers, attractive ROI, and driving impact.
Get insights on turning climate risk into competitive advantage and treating environmental initiatives as revenue engines, not cost centers. Contribute in this session on how sustainability is still the future of business, how it pays off, and if you will act before your competitors build the future without you.