Here is a free and downloadable handbook on how to finance a just climate transition, published by Transnational Institute and Institute for Policy Studies in the last month – Change Finance, not the Climate.
Written by long-time researcher, IPS associate and climate activist Oscar Reyes, the book is an accessible and comprehensive guide to a variety of financial tools to power a just transition. It examines their potential impact, achievability and any associated drawbacks.
The tools examined include green bonds for public investment in a Green New Deal; credit policies by central banks and financial regulators to increase fossil-free lending and cut the flow of finance to the worst polluters; the creation of green development banks with a clear climate and social mandate to prioritize public and local initiatives; reforming company boards and introducing corporate charters that offer a legal vehicle to hold companies to account for the pollution they cause; divestment from fossil fuels, targeting insurance companies underwriting the coal sector as a first priority, and the development of climate investment strategies by public pension funds.
Grace Blakeley praises it as ‘An eye opening and compelling exposé on the role played by big finance in exacerbating climate breakdown, along with innovative micro and macro level solutions for building a green, just and democratic finance sector fit for the future.’
Walden Bello says it ‘provides a wonderfully well-thought-out program for a global green financial transformation to accompany the Green New Deal… This work is not only a think piece for analysts but an indispensable, very readable manual for activists.
Bill McKibben says the book is critical, noting that ‘The flow of money to the fossil fuel industry is, as this volume makes so clear, the key to its continued destructive expansion; crimping that flow, and redirecting it towards what we so badly need, may be the most important step we can take right now.’
executive_summary_financial_system_change_online_def.pdf
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