Ramping up sustainable supply-chain finance

SUSTAINABLE transition finance is a phrase now in vogue to describe the multi-trillion-dollar efforts to massively decarbonise the world’s fossil fuels-based energy systems within a few decades. At the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, this was a major focus and large sums were committed to it – the first time “transitioning out of fossil fuels” was set as a global goal.

Energy alternatives such as hydroelectric, geothermal, green hydrogen or safe nuclear are some of the substitutes being developed in a hurry. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) and geoengineering are among emerging technologies that are seen as an outside hope. There is no doubt that energy transition will prove to be technologically challenging, if not an existential issue facing the world. Apart from the requisite trillions of dollars of sustainable transition financing, many innovative pathways will have to be found to achieve this within a rapidly narrowing time horizon to 2050. A combination of new tech and innovative financing on an unprecedented scale will clearly be required.

Greening the global supply chains – challenges and risks