This book provides a unique picture of green finance by highlighting, under both theoretical and practical lenses, current changing paradigms and future directions in this field. The book is founded upon four major aspects that characterize current debates in green finance: products and services, financial innovation, green washing and transparency, and external pressures. The book is particularly useful to understand the current perimeter of the field; identify the potentials and challenges of the sector; explore current changing paradigms and its potentials to act as drivers for mainstreaming green finance; and conceptualize future directions of the field, with particular focus on its role in the post-COVID recovery plans.

The book therefore is not only useful for deriving theoretical or practical implications for researchers and policy makers, but also to capture the evolving complexity of the field at the eve of extraordinary and green-driven changes in financial industry and in policy programs. The book also opens up interesting questions on theoretical advances in financial theory derived from these innovations and accelerated by the pandemic. It will be of interest to scholars and students from different academic disciplines such as economics, finance, political science, and entrepreneurship, as well as practitioners interested in green finance and in the financing of environmentally impactful organizations and projects.

Alessandro Rizzello received his PhD from the University Magna Graecia of Catanzaro with a dissertation that focused on social impact investing and social impact bonds in the healthcare sector. His research interests are sustainable finance, green finance, social impact investing, social impact bond and crowdfunding of sustainable ventures. His working experience includes the position of head of the Budgetary and Financial Office in the Italian public administration. He received his degree in Economics from LUISS Guido Carli University, Rome.

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