Following up on the Valdai Club’s cooperation with Istituto Affari Internazionali as part of T20 Italy 2021, the Club’s Programme Director Yaroslav Lissovolik has contributed to IAI’s study dedicated to the role of central banks in addressing climate change.

       Financial actors could play a key role in supporting and fostering a shift towards a low-carbon economy. In this context, central banks could have a primary function in both tackling climate-related risks and the ones related to the transition and, potentially, proactively redirecting resources towards green initiatives. Central banks are indeed exploring how different types of climate-related risks and considerations could be incorporated into their activities. However, this effort is proceeding at a different speed and with a different geometry across the globe. The book aims at shedding light on how central banks and international financial institutions are currently addressing climate change worldwide, with a focus on central banks in the European Union, the United States, Asia, Africa and Latin America, and on the potential role of the International Monetary Fund, sovereign national funds and ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) standards.

       Yaroslav Lissovolik’s chapter explores whether sovereign wealth funds could help in fostering investment in greener instruments. The author focuses his analysis on the case of the Russian sovereign wealth fund, the National Wellbeing Fund, but he also investigates prospects and implications of greener sovereign funds based on the existing international experience. The author suggests that, to enable and empower this shift, worldwide sovereign wealth funds should improve their cooperation to promote green development. Multilateral organisations – such as the International Monetary Fund or the World Bank – could play an important role in coordinating and guiding the process of cooperation in sustainable financing across the sovereign wealth funds.

       “Paving the Way for Greener Central Banks. Current Trends and Future Developments around the Globe” (ed. by Nicola Bilotta and Fabrizio Botti): download PDF.