The UN Armenia Resident Coordinator Francoise Jacob’s Speech at FINTECH360

Thank you for inviting me to speak at this event today. You may wonder why the United Nations is on the agenda. As United Nations Resident Coordinator in Armenia, I am on a mission to engage with all economic sectors - finance, industry, agriculture, technology, energy - to look together at how we address the climate and environmental crisis not in isolation, but collectively.

Finance is moving faster than ever. Technology faster than regulation. And climate change and biodiversity loss are no longer future risks, they are already reshaping markets, value, and financial stability. So, one of the questions for you today is how FinTech will help shape a future that is resilient, not one that is fragile by design.

1. From Global Commitments to Financing for Transformation

Later this year, Yerevan will again be at the center of global attention as Armenia hosts COP17 of the Convention on Biological Diversity. One issue will be central to the official negotiations: how to finance biodiversity and environmental commitments - and how to move from ambition to delivery.

Most countries, including Armenia, have already made these commitments: through their Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement, and through their National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans.

These frameworks are cross sectoral and ambitious. The binding constraint is the same for all countries: financing - investable pipelines, credible instruments, and aligned financial flows (half of global GDP USD 44trillion depends directly or indirectly on natural resources, including of course high-end technologies, mining, or agriculture. Yet for every dollar invested in protecting our environment, nearly thirty are invested in degrading it).

This same message is echoed globally through the Financing for Development process in 2026: the world does not lack capital - it needs direction, alignment, and the tools to redirect flows at scale.

With its new climate law, Armenia needs to build the foundations: carbon pricing, monitoring systems, and integration of climate finance into public policy. The challenge is not ambition. It is execution - financing, data, and delivery.

And this is where FinTech enters the game.

2. Linking FinTech to the climate and environment agenda - often called Climate FinTech or Green FinTech - means bridging financial innovation with environmental responsibility. It leverages digital innovation, data analytics, and technologies such as AI, blockchain, and connected systems to:

• catalyze decarbonization,
• improve environmental data and transparency (i.e. decision making),
• and facilitate green and nature positive investment.

There’s also strong potential at the intersection with public systems:

• Digitize subsidies for energy efficiency or clean transport or support sovereign green bond issuance and reporting.

Climate fintech is about developing tools that make climate and nature finance more accessible, more transparent, and more efficient, and therefore scalable and credible. Not as a niche. Not as a reporting exercise. But as part of the core infrastructure of modern finance.

3. From Technology to Impact

We already see powerful pathways emerging.

First, green digital banking and payments can embed sustainability into everyday financial decisions measuring carbon footprints, shaping incentives and suggesting lower impact alternatives, channeling millions of small transactions toward verified climate and restoration outcomes. Payments innovation can influence consumer and business behavior.

Second, digital platforms can strengthen trust and traceability, making it clearer where capital flows, reducing greenwashing risks, and ensuring environmental claims are real and accountable.

Third, AI driven data and ESG tools can transform risk pricing and disclosure standards integrating climate and nature risks into credit, investment, supervision, and compliance decisions. These are good tools for financial institutions to align portfolios with net-zero pathways.

Fourth, Fintech-driven insurance models can strengthen adaptation:

• Parametric insurance products for climate shocks (e.g., drought triggers).
• Faster payouts using satellite and IoT data.
• Expanding coverage to underserved populations.

4. For fintech leaders, this is not a constraint. It is a product and growth opportunity.

Climate and environmental alignment are becoming a license to grow (even when it is less on the frontlines like today): access to capital, regulators, global partners, and institutional investors increasingly depends on credibility in climate and nature performance. Fintech can mobilize capital at scale and democratize access to green bonds, climate funds, and blended finance vehicles including diaspora investment into sustainable infrastructure. It can improve how we price risk, integrating climate and nature into financial decisions and increasing transparency. In the green transition, trust will outperform speed. And regulation is coming whether we welcome it or not. The smartest fintech firms will not resist it. They engage early and help co-design smarter, technologically enabled frameworks.

5. Inclusion and Resilience

This transition must also be inclusive. And it enables distributed action. Small businesses, farmers, and rural communities are often the most exposed to climate and environmental risk and the least able to access finance. Fintech can change this: through alternative credit scoring, embedded finance for clean technologies, climate smart agriculture platforms, forecasting and faster, more responsive risk protection tools. Technology is not the end. Resilience is the goal. By the way, this will be particularly important once borders open with all neighbours. This will be an economy in transition.

Why Armenia Matters

With peace bringing stability and predictability, Armenia has unique opportunities. Small, agile markets can move faster. They can pilot solutions, adapt quickly, and prove what works. I think capacities are being built now in this country, with new generations of tech savvy entrepreneurs open to the green transition.

Fintech sits at the intersection of financial, data, and governance. Armenia could position itself as a fintech-climate innovation hub in the Caucasus.

We need your leadership to ensure that the innovation discussed at FINTECH360 does not simply make finance faster but makes it cleaner, more trusted, and fit for the future. And when you have good solutions, let’s feature them at the next COP17 in Yerevan, this coming October. 

Thank you.