Climate Bonds Initiative

Japan is at a pivotal moment in its energy transition, and its financial institutions are under pressure to prove that sustainable finance is more than a label.
 
In this episode, Climate Bonds Initiative CEO Sean Kidney sits down with Masayuki Takanashi, Executive Officer and Group Chief Sustainability Officer of SMBC Group, for a frank conversation on how SMBC Group creates Social Value, and what credible sustainable finance actually looks like in practice.
 
Topics covered:
SMBC Group's "Social Value Creation" strategy and what it means in practice
The SMBC Sustainable Finance Framework — what it does and why it matters
Transition finance and Japan's path to decarbonisation
Introduced by Yumiko Watanabe, Head of Japan Programme, Climate Bonds Initiative.

Methane abatement is one of the fastest ways to slow near term warming, but finance is still falling far short of what's needed. In this episode, we look at how sustainable finance taxonomies can help make methane mitigation more visible, credible, and investable.
Climate Policy Initiative's Gaoyi Miao, as well as Climate Bonds' Zofia Wetmanska and Lily Burge join us to discuss how updating taxonomies to better reflect methane's climate impact could unlock an important stream of investment for rapid abatement.

Europe is facing another energy shock — the second in four years. With oil and gas markets rattled by conflict in the Middle East and renewed pressure on global supply chains, the risks of fossil fuel dependence are back in focus.
In this episode of Financing the Future, we speak with Climate Bonds experts Sarah Maxwell and Lily Burge about the European Comission's new AccelerateEU strategy, and how Climate Bonds' new report, Rapid Transition to Energy Sovereignty, can guide policy and financial flows.
We break down why Europe remains structurally exposed to global energy shocks, how reliance on imported fossil fuels creates economic and geopolitical risk, and the five steps that can strengthen long term resilience.

In this special episode in English of the series “Por un Caribe resiliente,” Malini Samtani, Green Finance Advisory Officer at IDB Invest, joins Andrés Felipe Sánchez of Climate Bonds to discuss how IDB Invest is advancing blue finance to protect oceans, strengthen water security systems, and build climate-resilient economies across Latin America and the Caribbean. A timely conversation on the road to CONNECT 2026 in Santo Domingo, where resilience will be at the heart of the regional agenda. Register now!

Watching China’s climate journey feels a bit like riding a powerful horse. It’s fierce, fast, and full of relentless energy.
In this episode of the Climate Bonds Café, we deep into China's ambitious sustainability targets: from peaking carbon emissions by 2030 to expanding renewable energy capacity at record speeds. We're joined by Climate Bonds' Yunhan Chen and Rob Zhang, who cover everything from the big market updates, policy, governance and navigating a tense geo-political landscape. What does the Year of the Horse look like for China's sustainable ambitions?