Financial System Change, Not Climate Change

In recent years, some of the most successful campaigns on climate change have focussed on divestment from fossil fuels, the burning of which is predominantly responsible for causing climate change. Putting pressure on banks, pension funds and university endowments can stop – or significantly delay – big fossil fuel projects. The following paper offers suggestions that are drawn from Financial System Change, Not Climate Change, a forthcoming report from the Institute for Policy Studies and the Transnational Institute. The report focusses on the intersections between the financial system and climate change, looking at how banks and investors can be weaned off their addiction to fossil fuels. It surveys a wide range of possibilities, from modest reforms to wide ranging structural changes, that can help to reshape the finance system in response to climate change.