Sustainable finance has established itself as a catalyst to mobilize capital towards activities that drive decarbonization, social cohesion and global prosperity. Today, however, they face a triple challenge: expanding their reach, deepening their impact on the real economy and adapting to a geopolitical uncertainty that is redefining the socioeconomic paradigms of recent decades. All this, in the midst of climate change that does not let up. “Geopolitics has been positioned as the central risk at all levels, including the financial sector,” said Soledad Núñez, deputy governor of the Bank of Spain, at the II Sustainable Finance Conference, organized by EL PAÍS and Acciona. According to the economist, climate change is also having an impact on international relations because, for example, the melting of the Arctic during the summer has opened new maritime transport routes and has made possible access to natural resources that were previously very difficult to extract. “In parallel, the European Union faces the need to improve the competitiveness of companies and, to do so, it is necessary to address an energy transition that guarantees the economic sovereignty of the region,” highlighted the deputy governor. Soledad Núñez, deputy governor of the Bank of Spain. Andrea ComasNúñez indicated that the cost of acting late on climate change, in a disorderly manner, or of maintaining current policies will require a much greater economic effort, in terms of loss of global GDP, than implementing policies that take us to a zero emissions scenario in 2050. «As proposed in the Paris Agreement, fighting the adverse effects of climate change requires mobilizing large volumes of capital towards sustainable investment projects,» she explained. The latest estimates indicate that around 1.3 trillion dollars are required annually to finance adaptation and transition. “In this sense, sustainable finance plays a fundamental role and we have to recognize that the issuance of financial instruments linked to ESG criteria [Ambientales, Sociales y de Gobernanza] «It is not going through its best moment,» said Núñez. According to data from the Spanish Observatory of Sustainable Financing (Ofiso), global issues of sustainable bonds reached 408.5 billion euros in the first half of 2025, with a decrease of 25% compared to the same period in 2024. At a global level, while sustainable bonds remained stable, green bonds fell by almost 25% and social bonds by 33%. “Although it is true that adaptation and climate transition are not only financed through so-called “green” instruments, they can be considered an indication of where the trends are heading,” added the deputy governor. “To take advantage of it, we need clear frameworks, simple processes and an approach that combines ambition and realism,” said Carla Díaz, general director of the Treasury and Financial Policy. “In recent years, we have witnessed a kind of fashion around everything that sounded like. sustainable finance, a growth that has now suffered a significant slowdown,» stressed Pilar Sánchez de Ibargüen, Director of Financing at Acciona. «I don’t know if it is an awareness, but it is, of course, a return to calm.» This brake can help purge the market of certain opportunistic actors that usually emerge when a trend becomes popular. Jaime Ramos, manager of the Bestinver Megatendencias fund, thinks the same: «Companies that truly believed in sustainability have moved forward. Those who jumped on the bandwagon for fashion reasons have stopped doing so because it requires resources and commitment.”
From the left, Marta González Novo, from Cadena SER; Jaime Ramos, manager of the Bestinver Megatendencias fund; Claudia Antuña, partner and Sustainability expert at Afi; Juan Pedro Gómez, professor of Finance at the IE Business School-IE University, and Natalia Fabra, advisor and president of the sustainability commission of Redeia and Professor of Economics at the Center for Monetary and Financial Studies (CEMFI). Andrea ComasFor Javier Molero, director of Projects and Agenda 2030 of the UN Global Compact Spain, the policy of the current US government regarding support for fossil fuels has left an important mark. “Some companies have chosen to make certain commitments related to diversity or climate change invisible, at least temporarily,” he added. An example of this is the disappearance of the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, an alliance of international banks whose objective was to align investment portfolios with the path of net zero emissions by 2050. Several firms, especially American (such as JP Morgan), gradually abandoned the initiative and, finally, the alliance dissolved in October of this year. Despite this setback, the rest of the world is moving forward. “This year, nearly three quarters of all policies developed globally on sustainable finance have been promoted outside of Europe and the United States,” commented Helena Viñes, advisor to the CNMV and president of the EU Platform on Sustainable Finance.
A responsibility
Specialists in the field carry a responsibility on their shoulders. «We managers have the obligation to allocate capital to the sectors that lead the energy transition, efficient management of resources, energy or recycling. And investors have the right to invest in these areas,» said Lola Solana, president of the Spanish Institute of Analysts. After a period of explosive growth between 2019 and 2021, the interest of institutional investors in green funds has entered a phase of maturity, which has ended up diluting in a new cycle of demand, characterized by a much more technical and strategic approach. “We are facing an average investor who is more sophisticated in their way of understanding sustainability,” argued Claudia Antuña, partner and expert on these issues at Afi. In the institutional sphere—pension plans, insurance companies, large capitals—we have gone from “I want to be there at any price” to asking ourselves where the added value really is, Antuña added. «This financial perspective is what will allow sustainability to scale and reach much larger investment volumes.» From academia, Juan Pedro Gómez, professor of finance at the IE Business School, IE University, pointed out something that may be counterintuitive: «The average investor expects a lower return when investing in sustainable assets. When we compare green companies with brown companies, the expected return is usually higher in the latter, around 1%. This may be due to two reasons: either the investor is willing to sacrifice profitability for convictions, or green companies are perceived as less risky, which reduces their expected profitability.” In this regard, Natalia Fabra, advisor and president of the sustainability commission of Redeia and professor of economics at the Center for Monetary and Financial Studies (CEMFI), said that it cannot be assumed that investing in green assets should imply lower profitability. «Many activities are not profitable without sustainability, which is a strategic pillar and a key tool for risk management. Companies that do not invest in it face reputational, regulatory, physical and transition risks,» he added.
