Overview
With deep expertise, global partnerships, and a commitment to equity, SOAS is a proven, visionary partner for those tackling the climate crisis through innovative, justice-driven solutions.
The Challenge
Climate change is not just an environmental crisis – it’s an economic injustice. Developing countries, often the most vulnerable to climate impacts, face disproportionately high borrowing costs, limiting their ability to invest in resilience.
Until recently, the link between climate vulnerability and the cost of capital had not been systematically explored.
Research
SOAS University of London led the first comprehensive research to quantify this relationship. Between 2017 and 2019, Professors Gerhard Kling, Victor Murinde, Ulrich Volz, and collaborators revealed that climate-vulnerable countries paid an additional US$62 billion in interest over two decades.
Their findings showed that investing in social and physical resilience – such as education and infrastructure – can reduce these costs, offering a clear path forward.
Impact
This research didn’t just sit on the shelf. It directly shaped global policy. The Vulnerable Twenty (V20) Group of Finance Ministers used SOAS’s findings to launch new financial instruments, including the Accelerated Financing Mechanism for Maximal Resilience and a Sustainable Insurance Facility.
These tools are helping 48 countries unlock affordable finance for climate adaptation and renewable energy.
SOAS’s research has had a transformative impact on global climate finance. It informed the World Bank’s Sovereign ESG Data Portal and shaped the Inter-American Development Bank’s sovereign risk assessments.
It led to the V20–IMF Joint Action Agenda on Transition Risks and Climate-related Financial and Fiscal Stability, contributed to the Global Commission on Adaptation’s policy focus, and underpinned ASEAN-endorsed research on macrofinancial risk in ten Southeast Asian nations.
In the UK, it guided COP26 preparations, with SOAS advising the FCDO’s expert panel.
Widely recognised, the research was cited in nearly 60 international media outlets, including The Economist, Financial Times, and Reuters.
