Leveraging Digital Financial Services to Advance Inclusive Green Finance Policies

Financial inclusion can help vulnerable populations become more resilient to climate-related economic shocks. Digital financial services, in particular, open up new possibilities to bring about a just transition to a more resilient and environmentally sustainable economy. AFI has formed working groups on inclusive green finance and digital financial services respectively, and this report is the result of a joint effort between these groups to highlight the synergies between the two issue areas.

This report shows how digital payment platforms, digital financial products, and enabling policies can make a difference in helping the most vulnerable populations adapt to and mitigate climate risk and environmental degradation. It brings together insights from interviews with regulators in digitally advanced jurisdictions, conversations with FinTech entrepreneurs in Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as academic literature from the field of development economics and a survey among AFI network members. This wealth of information is organized under three headings: platforms, products, and policies.