Global sustainable development is at increasing risk from geopolitical fragmentation and a financing squeeze on emerging economies, the UN's Financing for Sustainable Development Report 2026 warns. Despite these challenges, global investment in renewable energy reached a record $2.2trn in 2024, double that in fossil fuels. Impact investing grew to nearly $1.6 trillion in assets under management in 2024, but a contraction in new capital flows is expected for 2025, the report says.

Luxembourg continues to dominate the European sustainable finance market despite net outflows of €30.3bn over the past three years, according to a study by the LSFI, fund industry group Alfi and consultancy PwC Luxembourg. The report says the grand duchy was the domicile of around 2,000 sustainable funds with assets under management totalling €815bn at the end of last year, accounting for more than 20% of the overall market. Luxembourg is Europe's leading domicile for sustainable private market investment funds, with assets of €855.6bn at the end of 2024, 77% of the European total.

The Luxembourg Bankers' Association has warned banks that the setting at board level of ambiguous sustainability objectives could result in misleading environmental credentials, in a report produced in cooperation with consultancy Deloitte. The authors say regulatory complexity and widespread unintentional greenwashing remain major issues and urge financial institutions to establish and communicate clear sustainability criteria and goals, including use of harmonised definitions and consistent internal standards to ensure that public commitments to environmental and social impact principles are matched by actual practice in order to strengthen public trust in sustainability pledges.

The International Renewable Energy Agency has recommended a number of short-, medium- and long-term measures governments can take to cushion energy systems against disruptions caused by the war in Iran and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Among steps urged is the rapid deployment of distributed renewable energy solutions to support essential services and critical infrastructure and an acceleration in the rollout of solar photovoltaic mini-grids with battery storage in remote areas to reduce demand for diesel.

Europeans strongly support an acceleration in the renewable energy transition, even if this pushes up costs over the short run, a Politico European Pulse survey of six European countries has found. The war in Iran and the resulting blockade of the Strait of Hormuz have underscored Europe's dependence on imported fossil fuels and prompted the European Commission to renew calls to expand domestic clean energy production. Some 60% of more than 6,000 people in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Poland said they want Europe to either speed up or maintain its transition to renewables while virtually all were in favour of more investment in energy infrastructure.

The World Bank, the African Development Bank and the Rockefeller Foundation have created the Mission 300 Private Sector Council, a body dedicated to mobilising private capital for the Mission 300 drive to connect 300 million Africans to electricity by 2030. World Bank Group members the International Finance Corporation and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency have committed $5bn to support private-sector investment under Mission 300, which has provided access to electricity for 44 million people since 2024.

Australian Ethical Investment has launched the Growth Opportunities Fund, providing wholesale investors with access to a diversified portfolio of private market assets focused on long-term growth and measurable environmental impact. The fund has opened with A$500m (€301m) in seed capital from Australian Ethical and up to A$125m (€75m) from the state-owned Clean Energy Finance Corporation. Investment themes include decarbonisation, digitalisation and the circular economy. An independent impact advisory forum will provide oversight, according to the company.

The co-founder of UK-based Proper Snacks, Ryan Kohn, has launched the Point One initiative, which calls on companies to donate 0.1% of their revenue to renewable energy projects in developing countries. The scheme has been launched with 30 small and medium-sized company members, with the proceeds to be channelled via the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet to clean energy projects in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America. It aims to raise a minimum of $200m (€173.3m) by 2030, which will be used to attract up to $3bn (€2.6bn) from institutional investors.

Sunotec, a Bulgaria-based integrator specialising in utility-scale solar and battery storage, has secured a structured equity investment from Blackstone, the US private equity giant. The funding is intended to accelerate Sunotec's growth across Europe, with a focus on Germany, the UK, Scandinavia and southeast Europe, and to strengthen its grid integration and renewable energy capabilities. Sunotec's founders will retain majority ownership and operational control. The investment is expected to support the expansion of Sunotec's power generation, battery storage and grid infrastructure services.

Convergence, a global network for blended finance, has awarded a scoping-stage grant to Oxfam Australia and Cambodian investment platform OBOR Management to design a proposed $20m blended finance vehicle. The Equi-Green Fund is intended to invest in climate-focused, gender-inclusive small and medium-sized enterprises across Southeast Asia, with a focus on early-stage businesses in frontier markets such as Cambodia and Timor-Leste. By combining concessional and commercial capital, the initiative aims to bridge financing gaps, particularly for women-led enterprises, and will provide technical assistance to support growth and impact measurement.

The Platform on Sustainable Finance, which advises the European Commission on sustainability policies, says its proposed revisions to the European Sustainability Reporting Standards will push them below other international benchmarks. The expert group says the changes would put EU rules below the global baselines for scenario analysis requirements, financed emission disclosures by financial institutions and easing of reporting requirements. A switch to optional scenario analysis could significantly weaken climate resilience assessments, the body says.

The Australian Sustainable Finance Institute has published its guidance on the issuance of taxonomy-aligned private- and public-sector debt and the use of proceeds, standardising how debt issuers, investors and reviewers classify sustainable activities. The guidelines were drawn up together with the finance ministries of Australia and New Zealand, as well as sovereign and semi-sovereign debt managers. Australia's sustainable debt issuance reached $53.8bn in 2025, up 11% year on year.