Financialization of Life and Ecological Transition amid Growing Inequality and Risk

This article argues that the compulsory economic and ecological transformation of our societies for a sustainable and more equitable world requires appropriate institutional environment and regulation according to the global goal of dealing with growing inequalities and risks. Over the last few decades, the free-market ideology has transformed capitalism into a financialized speculative rent machine, and increased economic fragility and inequality. To date, humanity faces growing environmental concerns and must fight against economic, social and political instabilities. However, research on alternative ways of transforming societies into more livable communities under the burden of climate financing suffers from a lack of appropriate economic and social governance. Achieving society-wide sustainable development goals requires us to rethink our approaches to climate change and transition financing. Climate catastrophes, mostly connected to our way of organizing and managing life on Earth, generate huge systemic risks for economies and people. An alternative way of governing our essential public good, life, is to find out solutions to mitigate harms and adapt economies to this fundamental equation. Our long-lasting issues, -environmental and resource depletion, poverty and inequality, socio-political instabilities, etc.- should be treated within the process of global change: the eco-transition. Dealing with inequalities in the face of growing economic and environmental risks, improving living conditions of citizens and making life affordable for everyone require a global governance of transition. The article then points to necessary institutional reforms that call for innovative approaches to frame our collective goals and to finance the global process of change. Global financial governance and eco-transition should be framed to fostering transformation of markets and institutions to achieve worldwide sustainable development through the provision of two global public goods -financial stability and sustainability (FSS) and economic/ecological sustainability (EES)- both sine qua non for a viable and fairer world.