Focus area
Sustainable Economy
Financing a green and just transition is one of the greatest challenges in the fight against climate change: decades of inaction and investments into fossil fuels leave us limited time to reach net-zero by 2050.
Solutions are complicated and encompass a range of tools and initiatives.
We seek to identify and push for a sustainable economy that enables and deploys low-carbon and renewable technologies & solutions.
In short:
- The flow of capital to projects and initiatives delivering real climate action must be increased.
- To enable, deploy, and scale real climate solutions, support mechanisms need to be identified and an appropriate regulatory framework must be implemented.
- Fair and competitive market conditions are needed for low-carbon and renewable technologies & solutions to thrive.
Economic systems still operate in a way that disproportionately favours fossil-based over renewable and low-carbon activities. Our work on a sustainable economy has its basis in observed failures of markets to deliver on their own in the fight against climate change.
Public funding and support mechanisms are widely needed across a range of topics to help facilitate technological development, innovation and deployment of climate solutions. Private financing has an important role to play. It is also crucial that clear and credible classification mechanisms, and transparent information on economic activities’ contribution to real climate action, are made available. This will foster an increased flow of private and public capital to the right projects in the fight to tackle climate change.
Uncertainties and risks are the main barriers standing in the way of long-term development of low-carbon and renewable markets. Ensuring a predictable and harmonised regulatory framework across Europe has been a building block in our work to foster such developments since our founding. This is particularly important in the context of ensuring fair and competitive markets taking into account the need and value of real climate action.
Related focus areas
What is the road ahead for interconnected carbon pricing systems and CBAMS?
December 9, 2023
11:00 (UTC+04:00)
Bellona Foundation Pavilion, Zone B7/88, Blue Zone, COP28
Classification mechanisms for sustainable economic activities around the world
December 8, 2023
10:00 (UTC+04:00)
Bellona's Pavilion, Blue Zone COP28
Publications related to focus area
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Bellona’s agenda for COP28
Bellona’s events Sunday, 3 December 12:00 – 12:45: Bursting Barriers for Solution Stories: How Industry is Growing Support for Clim...

Press Release: Bellona’s presence at COP28 – Storytelling for Action Pavilion
We’re excited to share that we will be present at COP28! The Bellona Foundation will be hosting the Storytelling for Action Pavilion in the Blue Zone alongside BAFTA albert, Futerra and Think-Film Impact Production.
Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU: What this means for climate action
The Spanish Presidency says it is committed to push for a reindustrialisation of Europe in the name of ‘ecological transition’. Many policy files related to energy and climate are regarded a priority, but the snap general elections in Spain mid-July and the campaign for the 2024 EU elections will likely affect the Presidency.
Lead Markets 101
The fundamental step of creating green lead markets is to generate a comprehensive CO2-footprint of a good or service in order to identify what is ‘green’ and which products should be pulled to the market. To ensure alignment with carbon neutrality goals, such a system needs to account for the whole lifecycle carbon of a product and include both the ‘operational carbon’, so the CO2 emitted during the use of a product, and the ‘embodied carbon’. The latter refers to the CO2 from input materials and processes going into a product, as well as the emissions resulting from products’ refurbishment and end-of-life treatment.
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