The article explores the conditions and drivers for the development of a climate-neutral economy model, emphasizing the pivotal role of digital transformation. A crucial lever in deploying this model is the proactive engagement of international financial entities within the realm of global green financing. The study highlights the instrumental role of green funds as key players in shaping global financial capacity and providing multilateral support for climate change adaptation worldwide. It delves into the overarching frameworks and mechanisms of such assistance. Employing a systematic analysis alongside case studies of the Green Climate Fund's projects, the authors aim to identify the most impactful sectors for cultivating a climate-neutral economy. The research identifies four essential segments for achieving climate neutrality: digitalization for climate, strengthening the financial capacity and business sustainability, rethinking ecosystem development, and community empowerment. The investigation draws on extensive data regarding the execution of 240 climate projects across major beneficiaries of climate finance in Eastern Europe, Africa, the Asia-Pacific, and Latin America. It shows that modern climate finance demonstrates signs of geopolitical dependency and polarization in global influence. The findings argue for bolstering the regional presence of climate funds to increase the financial capacity to implement climate-neutral projects at the local level. The article underscores the scale of financial support required across each segment, as well as the leading role of pre-project preparation. The authors substantiate the overarching and twofold role of digitalization in the model of a climate-neutral economy. The digital transformation produces a whole cluster of independent and versatile IT products for green businesses, industries and governance. On the other hand, digitalization creates an informational environment and a powerful digital infrastructure for better efficacy of other crucial segments. Specifically, it provides digital decisions for financial solvency and sustainability of green businesses in terms of green lending, grants and Fintech; strengthens information awareness and involvement of vulnerable communities in green economy processes; promotes digital support for overall ecosystem adaptation.

Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues is a peer-reviewed journal which publishes original research papers and case studies

The accelerating global transition toward climate neutrality requires the integration of digital technologies with sustainability strategies, as economies face both decarbonization imperatives and digital transformation. Despite the recognized potential of digital tools, their systemic role in supporting the green transition remains insufficiently conceptualized. This study aims to develop a conceptual framework for sustainable digitalization as a strategic driver of the twin transition toward a climate-neutral global economy. The research combines system analysis with empirical evaluation of international climate-digital projects drawn from open climate databases. This approach integrates theoretical foresight analysis and project-based classification to identify key accelerators of sustainable digitalization. The findings demonstrate that digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, big data analytics, and the Internet of Things can reduce emissions, optimize resource use, and foster inclusive innovation ecosystems. Eight categories of digital accelerators were identified, which significantly contribute to climate resilience, transparency, and mass cooperation across sectors, including energy, agriculture, transport, and industry. The study concludes that sustainable digitalization is not merely a technological trend but a structural enabler of climate neutrality. Its success depends on coordinated international frameworks, policy coherence, and inclusive digital access. The results provide evidence-based recommendations for policymakers and stakeholders, emphasizing the need to prioritize sustainability-by-design in digital innovation, to ensure transparent governance together with standardized data infrastructures, and to strengthen digital education as a foundation for equitable participation. By doing so, digitalization can serve as a transformative accelerator of long-term climate neutrality and global economic resilience.

The research reveals practical side of a twin green and digital transition in terms of a global path to climate neutral economy. Digitalization is considered as a driving force behind the transition towards a low-carbon economy. The article focuses on wide international experience of IT implementation for industrial decarbonization. Analytical database of the research covers more than 200 different eco-digital projects in various areas of climate regulations given by international organizations. This allows to outline international framework of eco-digital projects based on geolocation, regional features, IT decisions, level of technological support and climate influence. International differentiation of climate-digital projects was established by region. Comprehensive analysis of these data is provided to identify the gap in digital capabilities and climate targets. The rating of IT applied in climate-digital projects was built. As a result, the research proposes key project ways of the twin green and digital transition that are the most attractive for achieving climate neutrality on a global scale.

Methodologically this research is based on the approach of many social scientists who argue that there is a bidirectional link: one runs from human capital development to economic growth and overall human development, when human capital helps increase national income and society development; the other runs from economic growth to human capital development, as the resources from national income are allocated to activities contributing to human capital development. The study aims to empirically verify the existence of this interaction by carrying out a correlation analysis of the human capital development level among 120 countries, assessed by the Human Capital Index, and the world's national economic development level, as demonstrated by the Global Competitiveness Index, as well as the level of development of the world's nations (societies) as demonstrated by the Human Development Index.The result of the analysis empirically demonstrated a strong link between the human capital development with the country's economic (r = +0.944, p = 0.000) and national development (r = +0.882, p = 0.000) in total by all countries. Nevertheless, carrying out the correlation analysis by groups of countries, which are divided according to the calculation methodology of the Global Competitiveness Index, depending on their stage of economic development, the relationship between human capital development and nation’s development is becoming weaker in some groups of countries, with the remaining strong correlation between the development of human capital and the economic development of a state in all groups of countries. This means that only highly developed human capital can contribute to the country's economic development, and vice versa, national economic performance increases human capital development in the framework of effective development policy. On the other hand, not always a close interaction between nation’s development and human capital development can be faced, since a highly developed human capital means the quality of the developed human capital

Several individual factors like older age and chronic diseases have been linked with more severe symptoms often leading to hospitalization and higher mortality from COVID-19. Part of adults with such factors is still active in the workforce. The objective of the study was to identify measures taken by the employer to protect them and to investigate reasons for low protection of vulnerable workers during the 1st wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Answers from 1000 workers collected via web-survey and results from 10 focus group discussions were analyzed. Only 31.5% of respondents mentioned that their employer had identified existing vulnerable groups and offered specific measures to protect them. Moving vulnerable workers away from the workplace was the most frequent measure (e.g., transfer to the back-office without contact with clients, telework, paid vacations, paid downtime). Most employers do not see elderly workers and workers with chronic diseases as risk groups, thus are not specifically protecting them. Instead, several employers have included workers critical for business continuity in their risk group. Others had not taken measures because of the lack of information due to general data protection regulation. Poor communication and lack of interest of employers to ask their workers if they need special protection is the topic to be addressed at the national level.