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Finance and Sustainability Synthesis Report of WP7

Author

Listed:
  • Alessandro Vercelli

    (DEPS, University of Siena and SOAS, University of London)

  • Eric Clark

    (University of Lund)

  • Andrew Gouldson

    (The University of Leeds)

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between finance and environmental sustainability. The first part summarises a few crucial methodological and foundational issues underlying meaning and implications of financialisation, sustainability and their mutual relation. The second part focuses on a particularly significant case study: the unsustainability of the existing energy system based on carbon fuels focusing on the urgency of a rapid transition to a low carbon economy. The third part explores which role financial instruments may play to facilitate the transition towards a low carbon economy. In particular, it investigates the implications for sustainability of the growing trade of energy derivatives. The forth part examines the consequences of the disembedment of money from the socioecological flows of matter and energy. The fifth part investigates the relations between financialisation of built environments and urban sustainability. The final part of the paper draws the main policy implications from the preceding analysis in the light of the growing problems affecting environmental policy in a financialised economy. The main policy conclusion is that, notwithstanding the growing conflict between the ongoing process of financialisation and sustainability, finance has to play a crucial role to implement a process of convergence towards a sustainable path of development.

Suggested Citation

  • Alessandro Vercelli & Eric Clark & Andrew Gouldson, 2016. "Finance and Sustainability Synthesis Report of WP7," Working papers wpaper166, Financialisation, Economy, Society & Sustainable Development (FESSUD) Project.
    • Handle: RePEc:fes:wpaper:wpaper166
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    Cited by:

    1. Stefanos Ioannou & Dariusz Wójcik, 2019. "On financialization and its future," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 51(1), pages 263-271, February.

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • B40 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology - - - General
    • F10 - International Economics - - Trade - - - General
    • F18 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade and Environment
    • G15 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - International Financial Markets
    • H50 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - General
    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • P10 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - General
    • P52 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Comparative Economic Systems - - - Comparative Studies of Particular Economies
    • Q20 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - General
    • Q30 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Nonrenewable Resources and Conservation - - - General
    • Q40 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - General

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