A Scoping Review of Barriers to Investment in Climate Change Solutions

• Main Authors: Sarah Hafner, Olivia James, Aled Jones
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019-06-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: renewable energy investment; policy uncertainty; long term investment; private sector short termism
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/11/3201

The finance sector has engaged with policy development processes associated with climate solutions for well over a decade, with the aim of overcoming barriers to investment. In this paper we analyse 31 practice-based policy reports which highlight key barriers to such investing. We use those practice-based policy reports to identify themes associated with barriers to investment to conduct a scoping literature review of academic research. We identify 91 relevant papers and use content analysis to summarise the barriers identified in a structured way to help inform the research landscape in a timely manner. Given the urgency of this issue, we call on the academic community to focus more effort in this new and emerging discipline and, in particular, on the need for an independent view on the validity of some of the claims made in these practice-based policy reports.