This paper is a chapter of the book Ecological Money and Finance, published by Palgrave Macmillan Cham
There is a vicious circle linking finance and climate. By providing cheap and plentiful financing, whose risks are poorly priced to companies involved in fossil fuels research, exploration and production, financial institutions are enabling and accelerating climate change. In turn, global warming is a major source of financial systemic risk. The failure of market mechanisms to respect the carbon budget, to assess climate-based financial risks, and to reallocate financial flows on a more sustainable greenhouse gas emission pathway call for strong public interventions and for a strong involvement of both central banks and regulators in the structural change of finance.
