October 31, 2022

27 minutes

Available for over a year

We’ve been told that big finance is crucial to the transition to net zero, and billions of dollars are invested in so-called sustainable finance every year. But the BBC’s Climate Editor Justin Rowlatt, together with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, have been looking into a new green finance product and found that not all is quite as it seems.

Their investigation has found an example of sustainable finance backed by the multi-national bank HSBC being used to help extract a vast new reserve of fossil fuels in Brazil. And it's not the only one. Some question how this can happen, while others defend it.

Presenters Justin Rowlatt and Graihagh Jackson are joined by:

Tariq Fancy, former Global Chief Investment officer for Sustainable Investing at BlackRock

Caroline Harrison, Head of Market Intelligence Research at Climate Bonds Initiative

Ulf Erlandsson, Chief Executive at the Anthropocene Fixed Income Institute

Julia Carneiro, journalist based in Brazil

Email us: [email protected]

Producers: Sophie Eastaugh and Miho Tanaka

Researcher: Natasha Fernandes

Series Producer: Alex Lewis

Editors: Bridget Harney and Richard Fenton-Smith

Sound engineer: Tom Brignell

Production coordinators: Siobhan Reed and Helena Warwick-Cross