About

Stanford's Precourt Institute for Energy launched the Sustainable Finance Initiative (SFI) to work in close collaboration with government and private actors in key countries, including China, India and the United States, to advance the impact dial from ideas to action. Building on Stanford’s capacity to generate and apply knowledge, SFI’s mission is to design and deploy economic and financial solutions that can serve to unlock capital at the speed and scale required to transition to a decarbonized and climate resilient global economy.

Capital deployment is arguably the most central issue in implementing the Paris Agreement. Experience has shown that there are serious barriers to this expansion, especially across national borders and from developed to developing economies. These problems are now well-known and in need of tailored and site-specific solutions that cover the last mile from pledges to transactions. 

As the context around climate action has shifted from global to local, it is appropriate to shift the strategy behind delivery of academic research and analysis. SFI is structured around situated problems. Our faculty, fellows and students will pursue projects based on set of qualifying criteria and will work in teams with external and local collaborators. 

In September 2018, SFI’s Faculty Director, Thomas Heller and Managing Director, Alicia Seiger introduced the opportunity and imperative for SFI in a paper that takes a critical look at how current climate finance efforts have yet to adjust to a changing world and defines the course corrections that future efforts, including SFI, will need to employ. To learn more about SFI, read Changing the Climate of Capital and its periodic reports.

Stanford University gratefully recognizes Bank of America for its support of the Sustainable Finance Initiative.