Sustainable Finance in Europe and Japan: How the Low-carbon Energy Transition can be implemented at the Project Level

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The research achievements present several highs and lows, primarily due to the project implementation and research execution coinciding entirely with both the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020 and its peak with the spread of the Omicron variant in late 2021. Nevertheless, despite the significant limitations that this created for the JSPS Kaken-hi project in question, the funding enabled the research fellow to engage with the research community in Japan and the EU, and establish solid research connections with both researchers in the finance and sustainability areas, as well as, with industry and government agency-level stakeholders. The connections not only led to several peer-reviewed publications, at times with high-level subject-level co-authors, it also facilitated joint research and engagement activities with stakeholders ranging from high school students over university students to corporate leaders.In light of reduced opportunities to attend academic conferences and other in-person events, the fellow sought other ways in order to properly gather data from sectoral practitioners while at the same time communicating his ongoing findings to a broad set of stakeholders. Activities included joint sustainable finance and ESG-related research exchanges with the Tokyo startup community, ESG data-level research, research on green bonds and sustainability reporting. The fellow also taught courses within the context of his Kaken-hi subject to university students and business practitioners, leading to a mutually enhancing outcome and outreach.