Cogent Economics & Finance

FinTech for a Resilient Future: Artificial Intelligence, Digital Assets, Climate Finance, and Sustainable Development

Financial technology (FinTech) is rapidly evolving and transforming conventional financial systems, creating new avenues to address climate change, sustainability, and financial inclusion. This evolution is specifically due to development in digital assets, artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain technologies, and advanced analytics that reshape investment decisions, risk mitigating strategies, and financial intermediation and regulatory procedures. This Article Collection welcomes interdisciplinary research contributions, including but not limited to AI-enabled sustainable finance, digital assets and blockchain-based green finance, climate-risk management, climate resilience, responsible innovation and inclusive financial system, ethical dimensions, and emerging regulatory complexities, that contribute to conceptual frameworks, empirical insights, innovative practices, or policy insights (both in quantitative and qualitative evidence) of how FinTech can support sustainable development and accelerate the transition toward a more resilient, responsible, and financially sustainable future.

Recently, researchers are focusing heavily on exploring innovative ways to address rapid climate change, technological transformation, economic challenges, and increasing demand for inclusive and sustainable finance. FinTech provides powerful solutions to respond to these emerging issues by offering improved access to finance, strengthening risk evaluation, and optimizing investment strategies to facilitate sustainable economic development.

For example, AI can boost climate-risk projection and environmental, social, and governance considerations (ESG) analysis. In addition, blockchain-enabled infrastructure and digital financial assets can strengthen transparency, accountability, and performance in green finance and carbon markets.

In tandem, technological evolution creates emergent issues related to regulation, cybersecurity, ethical AI, financial stability, consumer protection, and digital exclusion.

This Collection encourages research that extends beyond the traditional approaches to sustainability and investigates how cutting-edge financial technologies can facilitate climate resilience, sustainable investment, financial inclusion, and sustainable innovation. It provides a timely platform for academics, policymakers, and industry practitioners to develop solutions for a more resilient and responsible financial future.

Papers included in this Collection will showcase how FinTech is helping to build a sustainable, inclusive, and robust financial system in today’s global environment. The four overlapping main themes are:

• AI & Sustainable Finance:
  • Explores artificial intelligence, machine learning, generative AI, ESG analytics, sustainable investment, green portfolio optimization, and AI-enabled climate-risk assessment.
• Digital Assets, Blockchain, & Green Finance:
  • Provides insight into cryptocurrencies, stable coins, tokenization, decentralized finance, blockchain applications, carbon markets, green bonds, and digital solutions for sustainable finance.
• FinTech, Climate Risk, & Resilience:
  • Explores FinTech applications in climate-risk measurement, climate adaptation, disaster resilience, transition finance, environmental risk management, and financial-system stability.
• Responsible FinTech, Regulation, & Financial Inclusion:
  • Investigates responsible innovation, ethical and explainable AI, consumer protection, cybersecurity, FinTech regulation, digital financial inclusion, financial literacy, and equitable access to sustainable financial services.

Please contact Dr. MK Huffman at mary.huffman@taylorandfrancis.com with any queries about discount codes regarding this Article Collection.

Please also be sure to select the appropriate Article Collection from the drop-down menu in the submission system, and select the section "Environmental Economics and Sustainability."

Dr. Umara Noreen is an Associate Professor of Finance at Prince Sultan University, Saudi Arabia, with extensive experience in teaching, research, and academic leadership. Her research interests encompass Finance, FinTech, sustainable finance, investment, risk management, behavioral finance and financial innovation. She has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and actively contributes to advancing research and teaching in emerging areas of finance. She is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and is committed to innovative, student-centered teaching and impactful research.

Professor Noor Azlinna is a Professor of Finance and Entrepreneurship at Solbridge International School of Business, South Korea. Previously she was a Professor at Prince Sultan University, Riyadh, KSA, from 2017 to 2023. Professor Azlinna served at Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Malaysia, as a Professor of Finance and Entrepreneurship and Director of Entrepreneurship from 2010 to 2016. She started her career as a senior lecturer at University Sains Malaysia (USM) and University of Malaysia (UM). Her specialization is in investment analysis, risk management, and entrepreneurship.

Dr. Ahmad Timsal works at the University of Derby, with more than a decade of experience across academia and several years of industry experience. His research and academic contributions include research papers published in a range of international peer-reviewed journals, book chapters, and contributions to teaching and research books.

Dr. Noreen, Prof. Azlinna, and Dr. Timsal declare no conflicts of interest regarding this work.