As the signals of an ecological and climate crisis are escalating, calls intensify towards green transition to achieve a net zero emissions global economy by mid-century. Researchers at the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2018) assert, for instance, that achieving the 1.5°C objective is feasible; nonetheless, it necessitates “substantial emissions reductions” and “swift, extensive, and unparalleled transformations across all societal dimensions“. The International Energy Agency (IEA, 2023) urges a doubling of the rate of energy efficiency advancements for a green transition and emphasizes the necessity for the implementation of large-scale funding instruments. Even though climate change is undoubtedly a planetary problem, its effects are not symmetrical throughout the global economy, and the global efforts to combat climate change are severely hampered by the long-ignored differences between developed and developing countries concerning the ecological, economic, and political threats they confront.

It is our contention, that pathways to a net zero emission global economy are relatively well-studied and understood, and yet, many of these studies thus far focused mostly on green transition of the power sector and decarbonization of the industry. In contrast, financing of this transition, and particularly the potential role of the financial sector at large, is a relatively neglected area in the design of the green policy infrastructure. It is the purpose of this research consortium to explore the sustainability conditionalities of the new industrial and agricultural policy towards green transition along with the need for a renewed green design of the global financial infrastructure; to study the potential of greening of the monetary policy instruments towards a greened financial regime; and to set the stage for a new agricultural, industrial and financial policy framework conducive to the struggle against climate change.

The FINANCE4GREEN consortium aims at enhancing cooperation and transfer of knowledge across sectors and diverse disciplines to increase their R&I capacities, and to improve their innovative collaboration through alternative synergies, encompassing networking activities, organization of workshops, seminars, and conferences and various modes of dissemination to facilitate sharing of knowledge with the global society at large.

To this end, contributors to FINANCE4GREEN will attempt to address the following:

• How should the green new deal projects across Europe, different parts of the world economy be designed to achieve objectives of mitigation of global emissions, sustained welfare, and ecological justice for the developing world?
• What are the (new) roles of finance and the industrial policy towards elimination of barriers to adopt green technologies and to achieve ecological abatement targets?
• How can the advocated experiences in the design of green deal across the EU be made relevant to the needs of the developing world, given considerations of ecological justice and global carbon budget?
• How should the global financial architecture be re-structured to accommodate the warrants of sustainability and environmental abatement?
• What are the potential income distribution and social impacts of the green deal project(s)? To what extent should these impacts be left to the realm of the markets? What are the socially relevant instruments (to rephrase Lance Taylor, 1990) of a sustainable and socially inclusive development strategy from the viewpoint of new industrial policy, green transition, and ecological justice?