Table 1 Overview of reports on Green Finance

(Höhne, Khosla, Fekete, & Gilbert, 2012)

“Green finance is a broad term that can refer to financial investments flowing into sustainable development projects and initiatives, environmental products, policies that encourage the development of a more sustainable economy, and to a wider range of environmental objectives.”

(Zadek & Flynn, 2013)

“Green finance is often used interchangeably with green investment. However, in practice, green finance is a wider lens including more than investments as defined by Bloomberg New Energy Finance and others. Most important is that it includes operational costs of green investments not included under the definition of green investment. Most obviously, it would include costs such as project preparation and land acquisition costs, both of which are not just significant but can pose distinct financing challenges.”

(PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2013)

“For the banking sector, green finance is defined as financial products and services, under the consideration of environmental factors throughout the lending decision making, ex-post monitoring and risk management processes, provided to promote environmentally responsible investments and stimulate low-carbon technologies, projects, industries and businesses.”

(Hens et al., 2016)

“According to our definition, “Green Finance” comprises all forms of investment or lending that take into account environmental impact and enhance environmental sustainability. A key element of Green Finance is sustainable investment and banking, where investment and lending decisions are taken on the basis of environmental screening and risk assessment to meet environmental sustainability standards.”