In order to uncouple economic development from resource use, climate change and loss of biodiversity, innovative solutions need to be developed. Recent academic and practical efforts have demonstrated that a sustainability transition achieving this goal is technically and economically feasible. Nevertheless, corresponding investments remain niches. This is puzzling because the efficient market hypothesis assuming perfect information in financial markets predicts that investment opportunities and risks are evaluated properly. However, information about the prospects and risks associated with them diffuses very slowly across different financial market players that are financing them from commercialisation to large-scale market introduction. Building on an alternative, adaptive market hypothesis, that is the fact that investors and lenders’ perceptions are playing an important role in their decision making, this doctoral thesis will focus on three mechanisms aiming at scaling up sustainable finance solutions from niche- to mainstream actors.

• dr. Helen Toxopeus
• dr. Friedemann Polzin
• Catalina Papari

• Alessandro Diego Scopelliti
• Hans Degryse