Climate finance or sustainable finance is financing that supports action to cut greenhouse gas emissions and build a more climate-safe and sustainable future for people and the planet.
We need to stop investment flowing into industries that contribute to climate change.
ClientEarth’s team works in four main ways to make this happen:
1. Encouraging companies to report climate risks
Investors need companies to disclose their exposure to climate risks in order to make informed decisions about where to direct funds in support of climate goals. They also need to know how businesses plan to adapt to a low-carbon world. We work with regulators to ensure companies are properly reporting on these risks and implementing actions to change, building a more sustainable approach to investment.
2. Ensuring retirement funds are managing climate-related risks
Retirement savings should be managed to safeguard a worker’s nest egg, not endanger it by bankrolling the industries driving climate breakdown. Investing people’s pensions, 401(k) plans and other retirement funds in fossil fuels and climate-vulnerable companies presents a risk to their savings as we move to cleaner, more sustainable energy sources. ClientEarth is working to ensure that those in charge of these plans manage climate risks and invest people’s savings in sustainable ways that secures people’s future instead of being gambled on risky climate-harming companies.
3. Highlighting the role of the banking and insurance sectors
Banks and insurers play a crucial role in addressing climate change and building a more sustainable approach to finance. We are pressuring them to align their financing with the goals of the Paris Agreement and to cut ties with new fossil fuel projects.
4. Advocating for climate considerations to be integrated in regulations and law
We engage with lawmakers, financial regulators and industry bodies to push for climate risks to be considered in industry guidance and laws – and ensure industries have a plan for a sustainable future to drive accountability and transparency across the entire financial sector.
What has ClientEarth achieved in the world of Climate Finance/ Sustainable Finance?
We’re helping shake up the financial industry’s approach to climate risk.
In 2025, we warned major banks JPMorgan Chase and MUFG, alerting them that their continued involvement in a project known as Saguaro Energia could expose their company to serious financial, legal, and reputational risks—including potential scrutiny over greenwashing and investor misrepresentation.
The project, backed by these powerful banks, would turn ‘the Aquarium of the World’, the Gulf of California, into a massive shipping terminal for liquified natural gas (LNG). Pristine shores will be industrialized, gas pipelines will cut through desert habitats, and millions of tons of planet-heating methane pollution will be unleashed. And, it puts irreplaceable species at great risk and accelerates the climate crisis.
Climate Finance is a driving force for climate action. That’s why we’re continuing to bring landmark cases against major companies that set new precedents and why we’re holding companies accountable to drive sustainable investment to secure a brighter, healthier, livable future.