The Climate Question - How green is green finance?

We’ve been told that big finance is crucial to the transition to net zero, and billions of dollars are invested in so-called sustainable finance every year. But the BBC’s Climate Editor Justin Rowlatt, together with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, have been looking into a new green finance product and found that not all is quite as it seems.

Their investigation has found an example of sustainable finance backed by the multi-national bank HSBC being used to help extract a vast new reserve of fossil fuels in Brazil. And it's not the only one. Some question how this can happen, while others defend it.

Presenters Justin Rowlatt and Graihagh Jackson are joined by:

Tariq Fancy, former Global Chief Investment officer for Sustainable Investing at BlackRock
Caroline Harrison, Head of Market Intelligence Research at Climate Bonds Initiative
Ulf Erlandsson, Chief Executive at the Anthropocene Fixed Income Institute
Julia Carneiro, journalist based in Brazil

Email us: theclimatequestion@bbc.com

Producers: Sophie Eastaugh and Miho Tanaka
Researcher: Natasha Fernandes
Series Producer: Alex Lewis
Editors: Bridget Harney and Richard Fenton-Smith
Sound engineer: Tom Brignell
Production coordinators: Siobhan Reed and Helena Warwick-Cross

Published on Sunday, 30th October 2022.

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