From Resilience to Results in a Fragmented World

Intensifying geopolitical competition stretching from the Arctic to the South China Sea underscores a deeper reality that the guardrails that long supported global cooperation are under strain. 

For CFOs, this is not a distant geopolitical backdrop; it is a fundamental shift in the cost of doing business. It translates directly into higher risk premiums, tighter financing conditions and tougher capital allocation choices. In this environment, one truth has become evident: financial leadership is now a primary stabilizing force in the global economy.

In this evolving environment, the CFO Coalition intensified its efforts to help finance leaders navigate this evolving landscape– together, we have decisively moved from frameworks to execution. While the recent global landscape has often been framed through the lens of an “ESG backlash,” our data tells a more interesting story. To date, Coalition members collectively reported nearly $300 billion in SDG-aligned investments, offering an empirical snapshot of how sustainability-related considerations are being incorporated into corporate finance decisions in practice.

Despite a complex operating environment, the CFO Coalition has continued to attract new members and sectors. One of the defining milestones of 2025 was the development of the Sustainable Finance Roadmap, presented to the UN Secretary-General. Built through working roundtables in Singapore, Kenya, Spain, and the United States, the Roadmap focuses on country-level investment readiness designed specifically for key themes, including infrastructure, food systems, energy and labor. 

A Market That Demands Discipline

Globally, the sustainable finance landscape is one of recalibration rather than contraction. While issuance volumes in 2025 remained substantial, approaching $1 trillion globally, investor expectations have converged. Ambition is no longer enough; the market demands credibility, comparability, and accountability.

Fragmented reporting has become more than a communications challenge – it has become a financial cost. In response, the CFO Coalition has focused its work on KPI integrity through the CFO Primer on Sustainable Bonds to help CFOs and their teams understand key instruments, market trends, and strategic opportunities in the sustainable bond market and provide guidance on how to initiate or strengthen their sustainable finance strategies. 

Why Blended Finance Has Moved to the Center

As we chart a path forward in 2026, that data is clear: progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will depend on private capital flowing into emerging markets and that this will not happen at scale without blended finance. With public budgets under pressure, blended structures are essential tools for aligning risk and return.

Over the past year, the CFO Coalition completed a detailed landscape analysis and gathered case studies from companies successfully deploying these models. This work will culminate in the Corporate Blended Finance Playbook set to be released in May 2026. Too often, blended finance has remained trapped at the level of government or institution. The Playbook is designed to change that– and with a new focus on the real economy. Drawing on real corporate case studies, it sets out how blended structures are actually built - how risk is allocated, how partners such as development finance institutions and philanthropic actors are engaged, and how transactions move from design to execution, channeling capital and therefore impact through corporates embedded within their communities. The aim is to equip CFOs with the confidence and clarity needed to bring blended finance into mainstream capital allocation, particularly in markets where commercial investment has struggled to scale.

CFO Coalition at Scale

Finally, we are expanding regional engagement to ensure that sustainable finance reflects local realities rather than one-size-fits-all models. Through SDG Investment Forums and Investor Roundtables in Africa, Europe, Latin America and Asia-Pacific, CFOs, investors and policymakers will come together to examine region-specific constraints, opportunities and capital needs. These forums are designed to move beyond global narratives and focus instead on what it takes to mobilise investment on the ground whether in infrastructure, energy transition or climate resilience.

Taken together, these priorities reflect a simple but demanding proposition: sustainable finance must work under real market conditions. By focusing on execution, standardisation and regional relevance, the CFO Coalition for the SDGs is working to ensure that sustainability is not only credible but investable - capable of delivering both financial returns and lasting impact in an increasingly complex global economy.